


Unconditionally

by Carlet



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Family, Family Drama, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-02-22 10:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2503811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carlet/pseuds/Carlet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Regina adopted a five year old Emma, never knowing the truth about the little girl who became her daughter? What if Emma and Regina lived together happily as mother and daughter for many years? And what would happen when Emma inevitably found out the truth about her adoptive mother?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

There were about a thousand other unpleasant things that Anna Carter would rather do than what she was forced to do day in and day out. Step in a tub full of spiders, eat a spoonful of sludge, anything. Anything other than force this little girl into what she anticipated would be yet another less than stellar living situation.

She glanced in the rearview mirror, catching a glimpse of the little girl sitting in the back seat, staring morosely at the nondescript road passing by.

"Hey, we're almost there."

The little girl turned her head slightly to catch her eye before turning back to the road.

Anna sighed as she continued to drive down the winding road before her. She hated her job with a strong passion. Still remembering her hopefulness the day she received her degree in social work, she couldn't seem to recall what had possessed her to want to pursue such an unpleasant job. Well, ok, she could. She thought she'd have the chance to help people in need. She just never imagined her job would widely consist of chauffeuring children to homes where they'd be neglected and abused. Sometimes the children would end up in a good one, with a loving family but more often than not that was not the case.

Five year old Emma Swan was no exception. As young as she was, she had been in more than her fair share of bad homes, much more than any child her age should. Anna had first encountered Emma when the little girl, then three, had appeared in her office after having been hastily dropped off by her adoptive parents. She could still recall the wide, hurt eyes as Emma slowly realized that her parents were not coming back.

And since then, the poor little girl had been shuttled from home to home. Some were halfway decent, bringing Anna hope that maybe Emma would finally have the family she deserved. But she'd inevitably be brought back as people learned how much work it was to take care of a little girl. The overwhelming majority of the foster homes Emma landed in were bad. Awful, horrible, nasty. Anna always tried her best to filter out the worst ones but often foster families disguised their abusive tendencies on paper.

It was so unfair it brought tears to her eyes every time she thought about it. She watched the happy little girl slowly turn into the closed off, depressed one that currently sat in her backseat.

Anna surreptitiously crossed her fingers as they crossed the town line into Storybrooke. Maybe, just maybe, this would turn out to the home little Emma so desperately deserved.

* * *

Regina Mills reached up and touched her ever perfect black hair. Straightened her blouse and flattened her skirt before realizing what she was doing.

_I shouldn't care about what a little kid thinks of me._  She thought with a slight snort of derision. But there was no denying it. She was nervous. And rightfully so, if her last interaction with a kid meant anything.

Fostering a kid. She had no idea what she was thinking. She couldn't take care of a kid! Look at how well things had went last time. With her luck something would go wrong again. Why had she ever thought to listen to the cricket's advice again? Sure, he had a psychology degree, but it had been given to him through the curse. As in, it wasn't real!

Maybe she should just call them and tell them she'd changed her mind. Yes, she'd do that. But just as she was reaching for the phone she heard the telltale sound of footsteps followed by a quick rap on the door.

_Here goes nothing._ With a deep breath to steel herself, Regina plastered what she hoped was a welcoming smile, she swung open the door to reveal a woman, clearly the social worker, with red hair, holding the hand of a tiny blonde girl, who was hiding around the social worker's legs. "Hi."

"Mayor Mills?"

Regina nodded. "That's me." She flashed the woman her practiced politician smile and held out her hand for her to shake, hoping to convey through her firm grip that she was nothing more than a lonely mayor who wanted a child. Of course, there was no way this woman knew the truth about who she was.

If she did, she'd probably run far, far away with the little girl.

"Come in, please." She stepped aside, allowing the social worker and the girl to walk in, before closing the door. They stood in the foyer, the social worker looking around the expansive room while the little girl stared at the ground, her hand clutching a white knit blanket.

Regina knelt down next to the girl. "You must be Emma."

Emma nodded without looking up.

"She's shy." The social worker explained.

"Well there's nothing to be afraid of." Regina said reassuringly. "I don't bite. I promise."

Emma offered a small smile before looking back down at her scuffed sneakers. "Okay."

The social worker looked down at her clipboard. "So if your file is correct there is no Mr. Mills, right?"

"Nope. That won't be a problem, will it?"

"Not at all. Ok, so before I leave I just need you to fill out a few forms."

"Sure." Regina led them into the kitchen, where she sat down at the table to fill out the forms, but not before offering Emma some juice. The little girl's eyes grew wide at the sheer number of options of juice boxes Regina had in her fridge. She hadn't known what type to get so she'd just gotten them all.

Once the forms were filled out, Regina took Emma's suitcase, trying to hide her surprise at how light it was, up the curved stairs into the room she'd prepared.

"This will be your room." She pushed open a door to reveal a bedroom, the walls covered with purple wallpaper and a bed with a matching duvet. While shopping for bedding, she'd thrown a couple of stuffed animals into the cart, thinking that the little girl might like them. Regina remembered how much she'd loved her stuffed animals as a child, before Cora had thrown them away, saying that princesses did not play with toys.

Emma's eyes were wide as she took in the room, silently sucking away at her thumb. There was a white bookcase across from the bed and a large dresser that Regina silently thought her little suitcase would never be able to fill up. "T-this is all for me?"

"Yep. I hope you're ok with purple."

Emma took her thumb out of her mouth. "It's my favorite color."

"Me too." Regina beamed. "I'm glad you like it."

"Well," the social worker interrupted. "I see that everything's in order so I should probably be going now."

Suddenly, Emma was a bundle of nerves as she followed the woman down the stairs. "Do you really have to go?"

"Yes." She patted Emma on the head. "Everything's going to be fine. I promise. Mayor Mills seems to be a very nice woman. And you have my number. If anything goes wrong I promise I'll be here right away."

"Ok."

With a quick smile at Regina, the woman was gone. Regina watched her drive away, a jolt of fear darted through her as she took in the little girl staring back at her.

_All right. You can do this._ "So." Regina approached Emma. "What do you want to do first? Do you want to unpack? Or are you hungry? It's up to you. I have the rest of the week off so we can whatever you like."

"I can do whatever I want?" Emma asked shyly.

Regina blinked. Why would she even ask that? "Of course. So what will it be?"

"Umm...I guess I'm a little hungry."

"Okay, well, let's go to the diner then." She grabbed her coat and keys. There was a tug on her hand, and when she looked down she was surprised to see that Emma had taken her hand, her tiny one practically disappearing in Regina's bigger one.

As they walked out the door, Regina locking it behind her, she was struck at how natural it felt to have the little girl clutching her hand. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 _I can do this, right?_ Regina thought to herself as she led Emma down the street. As it was such a nice day, she'd decided to just walk. Also, there was a part of her that, despite her false Mayor Mills implanted memories, still didn't prefer cars over horses.

"So what do you like to eat?" Regina asked in a rather blatant attempt to make conversation. She'd never met a kid who  _wasn't_ talkative, yet Emma was anything but. Actually, if she thought about if Emma resembled a younger Regina, after Cora had squashed her hope. But she quickly pushed that thought away. There was no way Emma was like her. She was probably just shy.

Emma shrugged. "I dunno."

"Come on." Regina prompted. "You must have a favorite food. Everybody does. Mine's...anything with apples." She smiled at her little inside joke with herself.

"Apples?" Emma stuck out her tongue and made a face. "Eww."

"You don't like apples?"

"No."

"Well, that's too bad. Because I made a nice, big apple pie just for your arrival."

Suddenly Emma's eyes light up. "Pie? With ice cream?"

"That's right. With chocolate ice cream. All for you. But if you don't like apples…" Regina

shrugged. "Guess I'll have to throw it out."

"No, don't!"

"But you just said you don't like apples."

"I-I was just kidding." Emma's eyes were wide as she stared up at Regina. "Please don't throw it away, Ms. Mills."

Regina laughed and reached out a hand to ruffle Emma's messy hair. She'd have to fix that later. No one living with her was going to look anything less than perfect. "Relax. I was just kidding. And you can call me Regina."

"Whew."

Regina felt much lighter as they continued their way down the street. Finally, she'd gotten Emma to open up.

"Grilled cheese." Emma said a moment later.

"What, dear?"

My favorite food. Grilled cheese."

"Well then. That's good." Regina reached out and opened the door, the bell jingling as she did so.

She stepped aside to hold the door open for Emma. "Because Granny's happens to make the best grilled cheese in Storybrooke." Even though there was clearly no love lost between her and the old widow even Regina had to admit that her food was good.

The busy diner seemed to pause as everyone inside stopped what they were doing, whether that be eating, chatting, or in Whale's case, flirting with Ruby, to stare at Emma and Regina. The little bit of chatter that had been flowing from Emma's lips stopped immediately as she pressed herself behind Regina's legs, her head peeking out to stare back at everyone.

Regina huffed with frustration. It really shouldn't come as a surprise that she was taking in a foster kid, since this was Storybrooke and news always traveled fast. "You can all get back to what you were doing." She said haughtily, piercing through each and every face with her well practiced stare. "Don't gape at Emma like she's some sort of freak show."

Luckily, everyone's cursed personalities made them all submissive to her, so they muttered their apologies and turned back to their lunchtime conversations.

Regina turned to Emma. "I'm sorry about them. They have the manners of barnyard animals." That, at least, got a small smile out of Emma. "Come on, dear. Let's go find a place to sit." She helped Emma up onto the stool adjacent to her usual one and had to bite back a smile as Emma immediately began to swing her legs back and forth, unaccustomed to being so high off the ground. She picked up a menu off the counter and opened it, pretending to study the words inside though it was clear she had no idea how to read.

Granny came over, an uncharacteristically wide smile plastered on her face. "Hi. You must be Emma."

Emma nodded warily. "How'd you know?"

"Because the mayor here has been so excited for your arrival that she went around telling everyone about the little girl who was coming to live with us here in Storybrooke." Granny lied seamlessly. "We are all very excited to meet you."

And just like that, Emma's smile was back."Really?"

Regina was slightly taken aback but nodded nevertheless, going along with Granny's blatant attempt to make Emma feel comfortable. "That's right. Emma, this is Granny. She owns the diner."

"Granny? Is she your grandma?"

"No." Regina laughed. "Everyone just calls her that."

"Oh."

"So what will you have today?" Granny asked.

Emma turned to Regina. "Can I have a grilled cheese?"

"Of course." Regina turned to Granny. "You heard her. One grilled cheese and I'll just have my usual." Before Granny left with their order, Regina met the old woman's eyes, silently thanking her for her little lie. Truth was, Regina had been so nervous over Emma's arrival she'd come off as more snarky than usual. And she was not the type to go around gushing to her enemies about intimate details of her personal life. Cursed or not, she remembered who they had been.

Someone approached the table, and Regina looked up to see Graham. Like every Wednesday night he was supposed to come over for...dinner that night but seeing as it was the day Emma arrived she'd canceled on him.

"So. This must be Emma."

Like with Granny, Emma nodded as she took in the man before her, taking in his open, earnest expression. "What's that?" She pointed at his shiny badge.

"That's my badge." Graham explained. "I'm the sheriff of Storybrooke so I get to wear this lovely badge everywhere."

"Everywhere? Even to bed?"

"Sometimes."

Emma laughed, making Regina grateful for Graham's open, easy demeanor. "I'm Graham." He said.

"Graham? Like graham crackers?"

"That's right."

Emma wrinkled her nose. "That's a weird name."

"Emma." Regina scolded. "That's not very nice."

She visibly deflated as seemed to shrink into herself. "Sorry."

"It's alright." He said kindly. "It  _is_ a bit of an odd name, isn't it?"

 _Not as odd as Huntsman._ Regina thought wryly.

He looked down at his watch. "Well, duty calls. I should probably be going. It was very nice to meet you, Emma." Before he left, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to Regina's cheek.

Emma stared at him for a long moment as he left before turning back to Regina. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"No." Regina answered immediately. Boyfriend wouldn't really be the best way to describe their relationship. More like...plaything. But of course she wasn't going to explain this to a child. "He's just a friend."

"But he kissed you."

"He's just overly friendly."

"Oookay. Well he's nice. I like him."

"Good. Because I have a feeling we'll be seeing much more of him."

Three puzzles (from the activity page on the kiddie menu that Granny had left on the counter) later, their food was delivered and pretty soon, all that was left of Emma's grilled cheese was a few crumbs on a once full plate, along with a few smears of ketchup due to the fries that had come with the sandwich.

"So what did you think?" Regina finished off the last few sips of her coffee and set the cup down.

"That was...amazeballs."

"Amazeballs? I don't think that's a word."

"It is." Emma nodded emphatically. "I made it up."

"Well aren't you creative." Regina replied, gathering her purse. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Emma hopped off her stool and trotted after Regina as the brunette made her way out of the crowded diner.

"To show you around Storybrooke. After all, this is your home now and there's nothing more important than becoming familiar with it."

"Home." Emma repeated, her face scrunched up in an expression that Regina thought was far too serious for someone so young. "Really?"

"That's right." Regina buttoned up her coat and held her hand out. A second later, Emma grabbed it. "Home. Be it foster or not, but this is your home."

And she meant it. Even though she'd only really spent a couple hours with Emma, the little girl had won her heart. Regina couldn't imagine life without her now.

Maybe she really  _was_ suited for motherhood.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"So you've already been to Granny's. This is the animal shelter." Regina gestured blithely at the building.

Emma gasped and pressed her nose against the ever closed blinds. "Can we go in?"

"I think its closed today."

"Oh." Emma pouted. "Ok."

"We'll come back another day."

"Promise?" Emma perked up.

"Promise." She held out her pinky and Emma stared at it, her head cocked to the side in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Here." Regina grabbed Emma's hand and looped her tiny pinky through hers. "This means that I won't break my promise."

"Not even if you're busy?"

"Not even if I'm busy."

Emma smiled so widely that Regina wondered how many broken promises the little girl had already endured in her short little life. "This is the library, which is under the clock tower. But its always closed."

"Why?"

"Well…" Regina stammered for a second. It wasn't like she could tell Emma that the library's only purpose was to be a cage for Maleficent. "I don't know, actually."

Ok." Emma barely seemed affected as they continued on.

"Do you like books?"

"Not really."

"Oh? Why not?" Regina was slightly surprised. What kid didn't like books? Not liking to read, yeah that was understandable. But stories? Every kid loved stories. Some of Regina's fondest memories were of her father reading to her before bed. (Cora had never done anything like that, of course). "You don't like stories? Everybody likes stories."

"No one's ever really told me a story and I don't know how to read." Emma explained.

"No one's ever told you a story? Not even a bedtime story?"

"No." Emma started to scuff her sneakers along the ground as they continued walking, her shoulders drooping at the subject.

 _Oh._ Regina was about to ask why but suddenly realized. Emma had come from a group home, and judging by what the social worker had told her it wasn't that great. It was overcrowded and there was barely enough food for all the kids or time for one on one attention, let alone bedtime stories. "Well then. We'll just have to fix that. No kid should have to go to bed without a story. How about this? Tonight I'll tell you one of my very favorite stories."

"Really?" Emma visibly brightened. "Yay! I can't wait for bedtime."

"Slow down." Regina laughed in response. "We still have a long time till it's time to go to sleep." Just as Regina was thinking about taking Emma to see the school she was going to attend next week there was a loud ringing noise. "Hang on." She fished in her pocket and pulled out her phone. "It's the office. I gotta take this. It'll just be a minute."

"Okay." At first, Emma stood by patiently while Regina yelled at her poor secretary but a minute turned into five and then ten. "Reginaaaa." She tugged on her foster mother's sleeve.

"Sorry." Regina mouthed. "It'll be over soon."

Emma sighed and turned away. Why did this always happen? Just as she was having fun she had to stand there and wait while the grownups did their boring grownup stuff. She  _hated_ having to wait.

At least Regina hadn't yelled at her when she'd become impatient.

She sniffed at the air. Something smelled yummy and it seemed like it was coming from the store down the street. But should she go and investigate? Turning back to look at Regina, who was still deep in conversation, Emma shrugged and headed off to find the source of the smell. She wasn't going that far; Regina would easily be able to find her.

It turned out she'd been smelling bread. "Wow." Emma said quietly to herself as she watched the baker heave a large, steaming loaf out of the window.

"Quite impressive, isn't it?" An accented voice said behind her, making her jump.

Emma turned around to find an older man who leaned heavily on a cane looking down at her. He had the most curious expression on his face.

"I don't believe we've met." His voice was soft and non threatening but the gleam in his eyes gave her the creeps. "You must be the child Mayor Mills is taking in. Welcome to Storybrooke."

"Thanks."

"Pleased to meet you." He said. "What was your name again?"

"Emma."

And then something peculiar happened. Right as her name left his lips his eyebrows raised and the most curious expression crossed his face. He seemed to stumble back a little as he stared down at her, a mixture of amazement and wonder filling his eyes.

"You don't say." He muttered. "Odd. And here I thought it'd be 28."

"What?" Emma asked, but before the man could reply she heard the loud, unmistakable sounds of Regina's high heels approaching them.

"Emma. There you are." Regina said. "You shouldn't really wander around like that. Something could've happened." Her eyes widened as she noticed who Emma was talking to.

"I'm sorry." Emma mumbled.

"My fault." The man turned his attention onto Regina. "I was just in the neighborhood when I happened to run into little Emma here to welcome her to Storybrooke."

"I'm sure." Regina drawled sarcastically. Emma looked up at her foster mother to see if she was angry. Unsurprisingly, she was, but not at Emma. The object of her anger seemed to be the strange man.

"Well we should be going." She took Emma's hand in an oddly tight grip and seemed to draw Emma behind her.

The man seemed to sense Regina's discomfort. "Of course. It was very nice to meet you. Emma."

"Nice to…" Emma started but before she could finish Regina started to drag her down the street. When Emma looked back she could see that the man was still standing motionless, staring at her.

Regina didn't speak until they were quite a ways from the bakery. "I don't want you speaking to him again."

"Why? Who was that?"

"That was…" Regina seemed to be considering her words very carefully. "Mr. Gold. He owns the pawnshop."

"Is he bad?"

"Yes, I suppose you could say that. He's definitely dangerous."

"But he didn't seem dangerous."

"Emma." Regina suddenly stopped and knelt down until she was at her height, looking into her eyes. "I'm serious. Promise me you won't talk to Mr. Gold anymore."

She didn't understand why Regina was so insistent on this, didn't understand what the big deal was. Didn't get why it mattered so much. She'd spoken to plenty of weird people in her life before. But Regina had been so nice and Emma didn't want to disappoint her, so she stuck out her pinky. "I promise."

"Good." Regina's voice was full of relief as she hooked her pinky through Emma's. "Now come on. I want to show you your new school."

* * *

It turned out that despite Emma's dislike for apples she had quite a taste for Regina's pie. She'd finished her first slice fairly quickly and was now attempting to get more.

"Please?" She asked, her eyes wide as she clasped her hands in front of her. "Can I have some more?"

Regina pursed her lips. "You already had a large slice, dear."

"But it was  _so_ yummy. Please, Regina. Please." And then Emma fixed her with a stare that Regina recognized as one she'd given her own father as kid. The brunette sighed. It was only the first day but she already couldn't say no to Emma.

"Alright." She responded, eliciting a loud whoop from the little girl. "But just a little."

But when she went to give Emma some more she gave her more than what she would've considered to be "just a little".

Regina frowned as she watched Emma eat. Something she'd noticed at lunch and then continued to pick up on during dinner was that Emma tended to eat like she would never see food again. When Regina had placed their plates on the table Emma's eyes had gone wide, as if amazed.

"Is this all for me?" She'd asked.

"Who else?"

"Wow. I've never had this much before."

 _I've never had this much before._ That was such a simple statement yet so sad. Regina knew by Emma's smaller than normal frame that she probably never got enough to eat. Her mayor persona knew a thing or two about foster homes, and the thought that someone would deliberately underfeed a little girl made her so angry that she wished she still had her powers so she could go and rip their hearts out.

The sound of Emma's plate scraping across the table broke her from her thoughts. "All done?"

"Yup." She nodded, and then yawned hugely.

"Tired, I see."

Emma nodded sheepishly.

"Ok, well you can take a bath and then go to bed."

"Bath?" Emma stuck her tongue out. "Do I have to?"

"Yes, you have to. Go. Run upstairs and get your stuff and I'll be right up."

"But…"

"But what?"

"But what do you want me to do?" When Regina gave her a blank look Emma clarified, "Should I clear the table or wash the dishes?"

"Neither."

"B-but…" Emma stood there, confusion apparent all over her face. "I always have to help."

"Well, not today. Go upstairs and get ready for your bath." Regina said softly but firmly.

"But…" Emma seemed almost scared, shrinking back and into herself.

"Go."

"Kay."

Regina sat back and listened to Emma climb up the winding staircase that led to the second floor. One thing was for sure: Regina's house would be nothing like Emma's previous residences. And she would make damn sure of that fact.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mentions of abuse

Chapter 4

As Regina finished loading the dishwasher, she could hear the telltale sound of water running in the guest (now Emma's) bathroom upstairs. Hmm. She hadn't anticipated that Emma would be able to figure out how to run a bath, especially with all the complicated knobs in the bathtub.

"Are you ok in there?" Regina called through the door. She could hear splashing sounds inside and smiled at the squeal of joy that had clearly escaped Emma's lips when she discovered the bottle of bubble bath Regina had added to her cart last minute when shopping for Emma's arrival.

"Yeah."

"You sure?"

" _Yes_."

"Alright, well I left soap and shampoo by the tub and there should be towels on the rack."

"Ok."

When she was five she certainly wouldn't have been able to take a bath all by herself; she'd always had the help of one of her long string of nannies. No way would Cora be caught dead doing something as  _common_ as helping her daughter take a bath, of course.

Part of Regina wanted to go to her own room and get ready for bed. While it was still pretty early, she was exhausted after her day with Emma. Who knew running around after a child would be so tiring? But there was a small, niggling part inside that didn't feel very comfortable just leaving Emma alone like that. So she ended up hovering outside the thick white door, conflicted over whether she should leave Emma, who had probably taken lots of baths on her own, or stay.

Moments later, her mind was made up for her as she heard a loud splash, followed by a soft but audible "Uh-oh."

That was never a good sound. "Is everything alright?"

"...yeah…?" Came the hesitant reply.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

 _Nothing my ass._  "I'm coming in."

Regina gasped loudly as she entered the bathroom, completely unprepared for the sight before her. Bubbles. There were bubbles everywhere, clearly from the stream of liquid flowing from bottle of bubble bath that floated in the overflowing tub. Emma stood in the middle of the tub, her eyes wide with shock.

"What...happened?"

"I'm sorry!" Emma squeaked. "I-I was so happy to have bubbles an-and they just slipped." She backed up against the tiled wall, tears forming in her eyes at the sight of the mess around her.

"It's alright." Regina said reassuringly as she reached for a fresh towel off the rack.

But Emma didn't seem to have heard her. "Please don't punish me. I'm sorry." She repeated.

"It's ok." Regina reached out with the towel and wrapped it around the little girl, lifting her out of the tub. On impulse, she squeezed her into a hug. "It's just bubbles. I can clean it up."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now, did anything else happen besides the bubbles?"

"No."

"You sure? You didn't fall down the drain and claw your way back up or something?"

"No!" Emma laughed.

"Good." Regina replied. "Hmm. I think there are bubbles in your hair. You look dirtier than before."

"Sorry!"

"There's nothing to apologize for, dear. It was just an accident. Everybody makes mistakes once in a while."

"Ok."

"Now, come on. You need another bath."

"But the bathroom's all messy."

"We can use my bathroom." Throwing a couple of towels over the mess and releasing the plug in the tub so the water would drain away, she decided that that could wait until later. Regina took Emma by the hand and led the little girl down the hall into the master room, where she sat Emma on a chair while she ran a second bath. She added a little bit of bubble bath from her own bottle. But only a little.

"All good?" Regina asked once Emma was settled in the tub.

"Yup."

"Alright, call if you need anything." Regina started to leave, but suddenly a little hand snaked out and grabbed her sleeve.

"Could you, um, maybe help me with my hair?" Emma asked shyly, her eyes trained on the frothy water below her.

"Of course." Reaching for the bottles that she kept lined up by the tub, she presented them to Emma. "Which shampoo would you like?"

"Umm." Emma paused, studying each brightly colored bottle. She uncapped the first and held it beneath her nose. "Yuck." Finally, she settled on the bottle with the red cap.

"Strawberry. Good choice, it's one of my favorites." She squirted a generous amount into her hand and started massaging it through Emma's blonde hair.

"That feels good."

"It does, doesn't it? Having my hair washed was one of the things I loved most when I was your age." When Regina finished, she reached up for the shower head and started rinsing the suds that trailed from Emma's scalp down to her back. "Close your eyes." She instructed.

Emma giggled as the water ran down her neck and face, and Regina had to laugh too at her reaction. Slowly, the suds sank down into the water below, leaving behind shiny clean hair.

Just then, Regina noticed a dark smudge in the middle of Emma's back. It was partially covered up by the foamy suds remaining, so Regina aimed the showerhead to rinse it off.

"How did you get ice cream on your back?"

Emma shrugged. "Dunno."

The suds were clearing away, but the mark wasn't. Regina reached out and rubbed it to no avail. As the remaining shampoo was rinsed off, the mark began to look more and more purple.

With a gasp, Regina suddenly realized what it was. It was a bruise. There was a dark, purply bruise in the shape of a handprint that stood out starkly against the paleness of Emma's skin.

And there were more. Now that Regina had a clear view of the girl's back, she could see other smaller, clearly faded bruises. One near the handprint and some along her hairline. There was a particularly nasty looking one on Emma's upper arm.

Oh God. Few things in life made Regina want to puke (she pulled out hearts on a daily basis, for one, so she kind of had to have a strong stomach) but at this moment, seeing the string of bruises on the little girl's body made Regina want to empty the contents of her stomach.

At the sound of Regina's gasp Emma immediately opened her eyes, automatically shrinking away when she noticed the look of horror on her foster mother's face. "I'm sorry!"

"Why are you apologizing? You didn't do anything wrong."

"B-but…"

"I just got distracted for a second. Nothing to worry about." Swallowing back the lump that had built up in her throat, Regina took a deep breath and turned off the shower. "There, all done."

Numbly, Regina handed Emma a thick purple towel and grabbed another one to dry off her hair. As she helped Emma pull on her PJ's, all she could picture were the ugly bruises beneath the worn fabric that marred her otherwise perfect skin.

"Regina?"

"Yes?" Regina asked, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Thank you."

"No need." Regina smiled warmly at Emma. "It was no problem at all."

"No one's ever helped me wash my hair before."

"Well, then I'm delighted to be the first." She sat Emma down on her bed and climbed in behind her, comb in hand.

They were silent for a long moment as the comb traveled through wet hair, slowly detangling it.

"You're good at brushing hair. You don't pull."

"The nannies I used to have pulled my hair all the time." Regina sluiced the comb through a particularly tangled section. "And it hurt a lot. So when I learned to brush my own hair I made sure to do it in a way that wouldn't pull."

"Why did you have nannies?"

"Because my mother was busy all the time."

"Oh. Why?"

"I'm not sure." Regina answered honestly. She actually didn't quite know what Cora did all day. It wasn't like she was queen and had royal duties. No, she just lay around and tried on dresses, probably. The Enchanted Forest version of a trophy wife. "She wasn't much of a mother."

"But at least you had one." Emma tilted her head back to look at Regina. "Better than nothing, right?"

"Yeah. I suppose. But you know who was truly amazing? My father." Regina blinked back tears at the memories of her father that came rushing back, along with the inevitable one of her being forced to kill him. "He used to read to me at night. All of these amazing stories. I used to look forward to bedtime each night."

"Wow." Emma responded. "That sounds so cool."

"It was." Regina agreed. "All right, I'm done."

Emma hopped off the bed, her freshly detangled locks swinging in the air. "Thanks."

"Of course. Go get in bed and I'll be right there to tuck you in."

"Ok."

Regina placed the comb back on her bathroom counter, pulling out the strands of hair that had tangled themselves around the comb's teeth before turning off the bathroom light and walking down the hall to Emma's room, where Emma sat up in bed.

"Comfy?"

Emma bounced up and down a couple times before answering. "Yup."

"Good." Settling in next to her, Regina placed an arm around the girl's shoulders before looking her in the eye. "I need to tell you something, Emma."

Almost immediately Emma grew apprehensive. "What is it? Did I do something wrong?"

"Oh no, of course not." Regina sighed. Why did Emma always have to assume that she was at fault? "Nothing like that. I just want to tell you something really important. Stop me if you don't understand, ok?"

"Okay."

"Emma, I need you to know that when you're here with me, you will  _always_ have enough to eat. Always. And I promise that I will never, ever hurt you." Regina said firmly.

To her surprise, Emma deflated.

"What's wrong?"

"They always say that."

"Well I'm not like everybody else. I'm me and I'm different. And I always honor my promises." She stuck out her pinky and Emma looped hers through, grinning as she did so.

"Now who's ready for a bedtime story?"

"Me!"

"I thought so." She leaned back against the silky purple pillows and tapped her finger with her chin. "Hmm. Which one should I tell you? I know. I'll tell you one of the first ones my father told me when I was about your age."

Emma snuggled down in bed, her hand clutching her white knit blanket as she looked up expectantly.

"There once was a bird who liked to sing while perching on a tree branch. Now, I'm sure you know that cats like to eat birds. So it was to no surprise that the bird's song caught the attention of a cat, who climbed up on the roof near the tree to try to get to the bird."

Emma gasped.

"The cat got closer and closer, slowly moving closer until he pounced onto the limb and tried to sink its teeth around the bird's throat. But the brave bird broke free and managed to fly down to the ground."

Regina snuck a look over at Emma; her eyes were slowly closing, though she'd quickly snap them open as she realized that was falling asleep. She smiled softly to herself and continued. "The cat jumped down and tried to snatch up the bird again, but before he could the bird transformed himself into a puppy and began to growl."

Emma's eyes had fully closed, her grip on her blanket loosened.

"The cat tried to bite the now puppy, but the puppy was stronger. And then he walked away." Regina finished. "The End. Just in time." She said to herself as she carefully stood up, not wanting to disturb the sleeping girl. She pressed a kiss to Emma's forehead. "Good night, Emma."

Flickering off the lamp, Regina closed the door halfway. Despite the fact that she had to go and clean the disaster in the bathroom, she couldn't stop the smile slowly spreading across her face. It was funny; who knew that the simple act of telling a bedtime story could serve to make her feel so warm and gooey inside?

Maybe there  _was_ life after revenge after all.

Maybe she didn't have to be alone.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Regina set a heaping plate in front of Emma. "Here you go."

Emma poked dubiously at the towering stack of pancakes before her. "What kind?"

"Apple."

"Yuck."

"But don't you remember how much you liked my apple pie last night?" Regina came over to sit down across the table and placed a can in front of Emma. "Would this help?"

"Oh boy!" The little girl immediately made a grab for the whipped cream and started squirting all over her plate.

"Careful, not too much." But it was too late, for once Emma got started she couldn't be stopped. "I think there's more whipped cream than pancake."

Emma grinned as she shoved a forkful into her mouth. "That's the point."

Regina shook her head but smiled nonetheless as she watched Emma dump about half the bottle of syrup all over. She would be on a sugar high for the rest of the day, but it was worth it to see her smile so widely.

"S'wut we doin...day?"

"Swallow first, dear." Regina admonished.

"Sorry." Emma did so and tried again. "What are we gonna do today?"

"Umm..." Regina paused, wiping her mouth daintily with a napkin. "I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"Is the pet shelter open?"

"I think so, yes. Is that what you want to do?"

"Yup!"

"Alright then. Finish your breakfast and then we'll go."

Emma shoveled a huge bite into her mouth and pushed her plate back. "Done! Let's go."

"Not so fast. You still have half your food left."

"I'm full."

"Really."

"Well..." Emma looked down at her plate and crammed some more of it into her mouth. "Now I am."

"The pet shelter will still be open. Sit down and finish your breakfast."

"You sure it'll still be open?" Emma asked.

"I'm very sure. And besides. I have ways of getting what I want. Benefit of being the mayor."

"Ok."

Fifteen minutes later, Emma's plate was empty, and she tapped her feet impatiently as she waited for Regina to finish her coffee.

"Are you done yet?"

"Almost."

Emma waited about five seconds before saying, "Are you done now?"

"Emma! Calm down, sweetheart." Regina tipped her head back and swallowed the rest of her coffee. "There. I'm done. Now let's get your coat and..." She paused. "Wait. You have whipped cream and syrup all over your face."

"Oh." Emma reached for a napkin and rubbed it across her cheeks. "There. Can we go  _now?_ "

"Hold on there." Regina grabbed onto the back of Emma's shirt and spun her around. "What's this?"

Emma peered down at the dark stain on her shirt. "Oops."

"Go run up and change into a clean shirt."

"I-i can't."

"Why not?"

Emma's lip quivered. "I don't have anymore."

"You only have one shirt?" Regina didn't even know why she was surprised. She'd carried Emma's suitcase up to her room the day she'd arrived and still remembered how oddly light it had been.

"Yeah."

"Well then." Regina said crisply as she stood up. "Looks like we need to go shopping then."

* * *

Emma shuffled her feet as she followed Regina into the only children's clothing store in town.

"Do we haaavvveee to?"

"Yes. I promise, once we get you some new clothes we'll go straight to the pet shelter."

"Mayor Mills." The girl behind the counter looked up in surprise as she hastily stowed the magazine she'd been reading. As Storybrooke's children didn't age or change in any way there wasn't really a need for them to go clothes shopping, so the store was usually empty.

Until today.

"W-what can I do for you?" Clearly, like everyone else she was afraid of Regina. Just the way the mayor liked it.

"We're here to buy new clothes for Emma." Regina placed her hands on Emma's shoulders and smiled sardonically at the girl behind the counter.

"Oh, alright let me know if you need anything."

Regina nodded, and then led Emma to the girls section. "All right, go ahead and pick out a few outfits and then we'll go try them on."

But Emma stood there with a confused look on her face, seemingly rooted to the spot. "I can pick out anything I want?"

"Yes, anything you want."

"Wow." Emma said as she began to sift through the rack. "I've never been able to do that before."

"Like I said." Regina moved to the opposite side of the rack and started to examine the line of shirts. "I'm different."

But Emma still stood there, rocking shyly back and forth. If Regina didn't know any better she'd say that the little girl looked overwhelmed.

"What's the matter?" Regina asked. "Go on, pick out something. When I was your age, I would  _never_ hesitate at an opportunity to try on new clothes."

Actually, in the Enchanted Forest she'd had her clothes custom made (there was no shopping, at least not for clothes), but she was still able to pick out the patterns and designs, so it was  _kinda_ similar to this.

"I've never...done this before." Emma revealed. "I never get to pick out what I want."

"And so you don't know what to choose." Regina finished. "How about this? We'll pick out something together."

Emma took her thumb out of her mouth. "Okay."

As Emma had only ever worn ill fitting hand me downs, she didn't know what her size was. So Regina advised her to just grab a couple sizes of everything so she could try it on.

"What do you think of this?" Regina held up a pink ribbon top.

Emma stuck out her tongue. "Yuck. Don't like pink."

Regina replaced the top and held out the same one in purple. "How about this?"

"I like that."

"Ok." Regina said as they stopped in front of the jeans. "Here's the trick when it comes to jeans. See how there are so many choices? It can get a little overwhelming, and frankly hard to pick which ones you want. So you want to find ones that you can wear with lots of different shirts. Which ones do you think will go with the shirts we picked out?"

Emma stared at the table for a moment before lifting up a pair of dark blue jeans. "These."

Regina smiled in response. "I like those."

For the first fifteen minutes, Emma seemed to have fun trying everything on. She seemed shy at first, especially when it came to needing Regina's help to zip things up or figure out a complicated sweater, but she slowly warmed up to it and genuinely enjoyed modeling all the clothes for Regina. It was obvious that she'd never had so much one on one attention before and Regina was more than happy to give it to her.

However, like all five year olds, her patience soon wore out. "Do I have to?" Emma whined.

"Yes." Regina bit back a smile. "Just one more pair of jeans."

Emma seemed just like herself when she was younger and Cora would force her to try on tiara after tiara, determined to find the one that "suited her best so she would become used to it once she was queen". It had been fun for a while but she'd become bored quickly, longing to go and play outside.

"Just try those on and then we'll go get ice cream." The former evil queen added, and just as she expected Emma instantly quieted and disappeared behind the curtain.

"And then to the pet shelter, right?"

"Yes. And then to the pet shelter."

Ten minutes later, Emma and Regina were on their way towards the cashier with armloads of clothes as well as a couple pairs of Converse and a pair of boots, when Regina suddenly stopped short.

"Hold on." Regina dumped the clothes onto the counter and veered off in the completely opposite direction.

"What  _now_?" Emma groused as she followed her foster mother.

"We almost forgot pajamas. You've clearly outgrown the pair that you wore to bed last night."

"But…"

"The faster you pick them out the faster we'll go to the pet shelter."

And so quick as a whip Emma selected several pairs of pajamas. "Can we go now?"

Regina looked over her selection. As expected they were all purple with varying designs. "All right let's go."

" _Finally."_

* * *

"Emma." Regina flicked on the light and gently shook the little girl's shoulder. "It's time to wake up."

In response, Emma buried her face under the pillow. "No."

"Yes. Come on, sweetheart. It's time for school.

"No school. I'm sleeping. Good night." She rolled over until she was facing away from Regina.

"If you're asleep then why are you talking?" She teased.

No response.

Regina sighed. Emma's stubbornness was jarringly familiar, reminding her of another kid she'd encountered long ago. Who, Regina couldn't quite place her finger on it. She herself had never really been that stubborn, instead more complacent. It was a trait you needed if you were to grow up with Cora as a mother.

"If you don't go to school how will you earn your puppy?"

Emma flipped over and opened one eye, gazing at Regina for a moment before shutting it again.

"That's right. I know you heard me. If you don't go to school how are you supposed to get the good grades you'll need to get a pet?"

After their shopping trip last week, Regina had taken Emma to the pet shelter as promised, where the little girl sat in awe before the cages that housed the puppies. The man running the shelter had allowed Emma to play with several ( because Regina had given him a look and raised her eyebrow) of the puppies. Predictably, Emma had asked if they could adopt one but Regina had said no, mentally cringing at the thought of animal fur soiling her impeccable home. But then Emma's lip had quivered and Regina had found herself striking a deal.

"If you get good grades in school then  _maybe_ I'll consider...adopting one of the puppies."

And then Emma had launched herself at Regina, throwing her arms around her foster mother. "Really?"

"Yes." Regina pressed her lips together. "But only if you do well in school."

Bullshit. They didn't give you grades in kindergarten. Regina had basically said yes to Emma, though the little girl didn't know it yet.

"Thank you." Emma breathed as she looked up at Regina, her eyes wide with joy.

"For what? I haven't done anything yet."

"Because…" Suddenly, Emma looked shy, training her eyes on her scuffed shoes, the shoes that Regina planned to throw away as soon as they got home. "It means I get to stay."

 _It means I get to stay._ In that moment, Regina had understood Emma's meaning. It wasn't just about the puppy, but what it meant. A puppy meant that she would be able to stay in Storybrooke. Meant that Regina intended to keep her. Because if she wasn't she would never say such a thing. And the fact that Regina had promised to always keep her promises meant that she was serious about keeping Emma, serious about Storybrooke being Emma's home.

"I know you want a puppy." Regina said. "So come on. Up and at em."

Emma sighed heavily as she kicked off the covers, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Ok. I'm up."

"Good girl. Do you need any help getting dressed?"

Both she and Emma looked across the room to the outfit that hung in the open closet. They'd decided on it last night and Emma had proclaimed it the "best first day of school outfit ever". It consisted of the purple version of the pink top Emma hadn't liked and the jeans that Emma had picked out.

"No." Emma shook her head. "I'm good."

"All right." Regina started to leave the room. "I think if you hurry there might be a surprise downstairs." She added before going back downstairs.

The "surprise" consisted of apple pancakes, which had quickly become one of Emma's favorite breakfast foods, along with the remnants of the can of whipped cream, and bacon.

"I think your pigtails are a bit crooked." Regina frowned at Emma's reflection as she stood fixing her earrings in front of the mirror by the door. "Why didn't you ask me to help you?"

Emma shrugged. "I didn't want to bother you."

"Come on." Regina ushered her upstairs. "I'll help you fix it. And you can always feel free to ask for my help no matter how busy I look." She stood Emma on top of a chair in front of her, releasing her messy blonde curls from the hair ties. "Do you want me to redo your pigtails or do something else?"

"Something else."

"Ok. Well, I'll give you a hairstyle I used to wear all the time, back when I had long hair." She started finger combing through Emma's hair, attempting to detangle it before pulling it back in a sleek French braid.

"Wow."

"Do you like it?"

"It's so pretty." Emma ran her hands down the back of her head. "Thank you."

"No problem. Now come on. You don't want to be late for your first day."

Lateness was  _not_ one of Regina's habits (Snow's wedding was an exception and besides she'd been fashionably late), and so she and Emma arrived at the elementary school ten minutes before school was due to start. All around her, kids ran around, talked, and hung out.

"Here we are." Regina said as they came to a stop next to the door for the kindergarten class.

The shy, terrified girl that had first arrived at Regina's door suddenly came back as Emma peeked inside the half full classroom, her classmates still trickling in, arriving with their parents.

"You ready to go in?"

"No. I wanna go home."

"Hey, it's ok to be nervous." Regina knelt down so that she was at the little girl's height. "But I promise you, there's nothing to be afraid of. The other kids are very nice."

"But…" Emma bit her thumbnail. "What if they don't like me?"

"They will."

"No they won't. The other kids never like me. They think I'm weird."

 _Because you're a foster kid._  Regina mentally finished. All week, ever since she'd met Emma, she'd been feeling angrier and angrier towards the careless imbeciles who just tossed aside their daughter like that. She had never read Emma's file, since it was confidential, but the social worker had told her that Emma had been abandoned as a baby, briefly adopted, and then given up again.

Regina hated them even more than she hated Emma's previous abusive foster parents. Because if it weren't for Emma's birth parents she wouldn't have been placed into those awful situations in the first place.

"Listen to me." She reached up and brushed back a stray lock of hair out of the little girl's face. "You're not weird. Those other kids, they were wrong. They were idiots. They didn't know anything.  _I_ know you. And yes, I know it's only been a week but I know that you're an amazing girl. And if the other kids can't see that, well then it's their loss."

As Regina spoke, Emma began to visibly calm. "Really?"

"Yes, really. You'll be fine. I promise. And have I ever broken a promise?"

"No."

"That's right. I promise that everything's going to be all right, you're going to have fun, and you're going to love kindergarten."

With that, Emma took a deep breath, nodded, and pushed her way into the classroom. Regina watched from the door, a smile growing on her face despite herself as she watched the elderly looking teacher take Emma by the hand and lead her onto the colorful carpet where the other kids were sitting.

Emma was going to be all right. Regina was about to leave when she heard little footsteps behind her.

"Wait!"

Regina turned around to find Emma dashing towards her. "What's wrong?"

"I forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"This." Emma wrapped her arms around Regina's waist. "I forgot to say bye!"

Regina hugged her back and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Bye, Emma. Have a good day."

As she slowly walked out of the building, she felt a sudden pang. Less than two minutes and she already missed Emma.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

As kids streamed on either side of her, clearly glad to be leaving school for the day, Regina stood outside the building, surveying the tops of the kids' heads, looking for a blonde French braid, one that she was rather proud of too. It had been years since she'd braided hair and she'd been surprised to find that she could still do it.

Regina watched as Emma turned her head from side to side, clearly looking for her. The little girl bit her lip as she searched through the unfamiliar faces. Finally, her eyes landed on Regina and her entire face lit up, immediately running towards her.

"Regina!" Emma cried as she threw her arms around her foster mother. "You're here."

"Of course I am. Where else would I be?" Again, Regina was reminded that in her previous homes Emma hadn't had anyone who cared. "Did you have fun?"

"SOOOO much fun."

"Well I'm glad." She ushered Emma towards her car. "Come, you can tell me all about it on the way home."

And that's what Emma did. On the entire drive home, during her afternoon snack, before dinner, and all during dinner a constant stream of excited commentary flowed through Emma's mouth.

"And then after we colored we had naptime which I didn't like cuz it was boring and I wasn't tired but Mrs. Smith made me lie down anyway but I didn't sleep even though everyone else did…" She babbled, completely ignoring the plate of lasagna before her.

"Breathe, Emma." Regina laughed, taking a small sip from her glass. "And don't forget to eat."

Emma shoveled a large forkful of food into her mouth before continuing. "After naptime she read us a story not a boring story like Green Eggs and Ham which I've heard like a million times but a fun story about Peter Pan except in this story Peter Pan was evil not nice. And then we went outside for recess the playground was smaller than the ones in the other schools I went to but I liked it better because they had swings and my other schools didn't and then when we went back inside for lunch I shared my chips with this girl named Jasmine and did you know she has a pet tiger?"

"Oh, no I didn't. A pet must be a handful for her parents."

"She said that her tiger is really fun and her best friend. Can we get a tiger?"

Regina pursed her lips. "I don't think so. Where would the tiger sleep?"

"With me?" Emma's voice rose in pitch.

"But what about your puppy when you get one? I don't think they'll get along."

"Oh yeah." She said, but she didn't look too disappointed. "Ok."

"What else did you do?"

"We had to learn how to tell time." Emma stuck out her tongue. "Yuck."

"I take it you didn't like it?"

"Nope. It was boring."

"It may be boring, but telling time's important. How else would we know when to do things? Including," She stood up and reached for something on the counter, revealing the pie she'd made to celebrate Emma's first day of school. "when it's time for dessert?"

"Yeah, yeah." Emma waved her hand dismissively. "Whatever."

"Well, telling time aside, I'm glad you had a good day."

"Yup."

"Perhaps tomorrow morning you won't whine when you get out of bed then?"

Emma's flippant response, making her sound  _much_ older than five, caused Regina to laugh. "Don't count on it."

* * *

"What're you doing?" Regina asked, peeking over Emma's shoulder. The little girl was seated cross legged on the couch, focused on something, her face scrunched up with concentration as she pored over something in her lap.

"Homework."

"I didn't know they gave homework in kindergarten." Regina responded, surprised.

"Not usually. But Mrs. Smith wanted us to read a book and then talk about it in class tomorrow." Emma held up a thin volume that Regina secretly thought hardly counted as a book.

"Clifford the Big Red Dog." Regina read. "Sounds...interesting. And I know you like dogs, so why the long face?"

"Because it's too hard."

"Let me see it."

Emma handed her the book and Regina flipped through it, noting the large, colorful pictures and the short line of text on each page.

"See? Isn't it just awful?"

"Doesn't look too bad to me."

"But there are too many words." Emma protested. "I don't know how to read them. I tried to just look at the pictures but last time I did that I got in trouble."

"Really." Regina raised an eyebrow. "You got in trouble?"

"Yeah. said I actually hafta read the book because," Emma's voice took on a high pitch, clearly to imitate her teacher. "Reading is very important, boys and girls."

"Well, she's not wrong."

Emma huffed and crossed her arms. "I hate reading."

"Hey, now." Regina sat down next to Emma on the couch. "I'm sure you don't hate reading."

"Yes, I do." Emma said stubbornly. "I hate it. It's boring and hard and even worse than telling time."

"I didn't know something could be worse than telling time." Regina feigned surprise.

"Yes." Emma said seriously. "Reading is awful."

"I think you're just saying that because you have trouble. Once you get the hang of it you'll find out how fun reading is."

"Nuh uh."

"Come on, I'll help you. Go get all the books your teacher sent you home with. And don't even try and say that this is the only one. I know there are others that you didn't read."

Emma sighed, but she pushed herself up off the couch and went upstairs. A few minutes later she came down with a stack of books in her arms.

"Wow." Regina said as she perused the stack. "You didn't read all of these?"

"Nope."

"Well then, let's get started." She cracked open  _Clifford the Big Red Dog_ to the first page and pointed to the first word. "Sound it out." She instructed much like how her governess had taught her to read long ago. "Sound out each letter and then slowly build the word."

"C-cuh…" Emma stammered."Cuh-li-ff…"

But it was fruitless. As Emma continued, painfully distorting each word, Regina could feel her growing more and more frustrated. And she herself felt bad for Emma as she remembered with a stark clarity that she'd had to do the same thing as a child, being forced to sound out each word. It was effective, yes, but also painful and boring and sucked the fun out of reading. There had to be a better way to teach someone to read.

Emma looked up. "Do I have to keep doing this?" She whined.

Much to Emma's surprise, Regina responded firmly, "No." She closed the book and placed it aside. "I have a better idea."

Fifteen minutes later, Emma was seated at the kitchen table, a stack of construction paper and a box of crayons before her.

"You're always saying that you wish my stories had pictures, right?"

Emma nodded.

"Well, we're going to give them pictures. I'm going to write out my stories and then we're going to illustrate them together, creating our very own book of bedtime stories."

At the mention of drawing, Emma's face lit up. "Really? I like drawing."

"But here's the catch.  _You_ have to read the stories and tell us what to draw. Otherwise we might draw the wrong thing."

"Oh." Emma pouted.

"Before you start to whine again why don't you give it a try?" Regina thrusted a blank piece of paper in front of Emma, along with a simplified version of the story about the cat and the bird that she'd told on Emma's first night in Storybrooke.

"Umm…" Emma said uncertainly.

"Go ahead," Regina coaxed. "sound out the words and once you've read the first sentence we'll illustrate it."

Slowly, Emma read out the first sentence. "There once was a bird who liked to sing while sitting on a tree branch." She looked up at her foster mother. "Can I draw now?"

"Yes." Regina pushed the box of crayons towards the little girl, who gleefully grabbed one and started to sketch out a bird. She had been right; this  _was_ a much better way to teach Emma to read. In no time, she'd illustrated the story.

"I did it!" She triumphantly placed down the crayon, having just finished coloring in the dog in the final picture.

"Yes, you did." Regina beamed. "See? I told you? You could do it if you just tried."

Emma reached over and gave Regina an impromptu hug. "All thanks to you."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Regina, Regina, Regina!" Emma ran up to her foster mother, clearly brimming over the top with excitement. "Guess what?!"

"What?"

"I have the bestest news ever!"

Before Regina could correct Emma on the usage of "bestest", the five year old continued. "Guess what this Friday is!"

Even though Regina already knew, she fixed a blank stare upon her face. "I don't know, sweetheart. What?"

"It's Halloween!"

Regina fake gasped dramatically. "No way!"

"Yes way!" Emma insisted. "This Friday is Halloween. And Mrs. Smith said we're gonna have a party with cookies and candy and punch and we can wear our costumes to school and Jasmine said to go trick or treating by Granny's because she always gives out the biggest candy bars and candy apples I really like candy apples but not regular apples cuz they are gross did you know I can almost fit an entire one in my mouth can we go trick or treating please please pretty please Regina?"

"Slow down. One at a time. Did you say something about a party?"

Emma nodded. "With cookies and candy and punch and…"

"Yes, yes I got that part. It's a costume party, right?" Regina asked as they walked towards her car.

"Yup."

"Well that sounds fun. Have you thought about who you want to be?"

"Yeah I wanna be Snow White."

Regina nearly choked. "S-snow White? Really?"

"She's my favorite Disney princess when I watched the movie at the group home one of the older girls put it on and I really like her because she's so nice and she sings to birds and she's so pretty."

Regina could think of a few other choice words to describe Snow White, words that didn't include  _nice_ and  _pretty_ but they wouldn't be appropriate for Emma's ears.

"Are you sure? There are lots of other princesses to dress up as. Sleeping Beauty's rather lovely and she has hair that matches yours." Also she was one of the few that Regina didn't have a personal vendetta against.

"No." Emma said stubbornly. "I wanna be Snow White."

Regina sighed inwardly. "All right then. We'll go shopping for a costume tomorrow after school."

As promised, the following afternoon Regina led Emma into Storybrooke's one costume store. Why there was one in the little town was beyond Regina, as nobody really needed it but she was glad now that it was there.

"Wow." Emma breathed as she took in the sheer number of options before her. Although small, the walls of the store were covered from floor to ceiling with every costume imaginable. Wigs hung from the ceiling and props were everywhere. "There's a lotta stuff."

"Can I help you?" A scarecrow in the corner asked, causing Regina to jump in surprise. Emma merely giggled at the sight.

"Yes, hi. We're looking for your princess costumes."

"I'm going to be Snow White." Emma piped up.

"Oh, really? That's pretty cool." The scarecrow commented. "They're back there." He pointed at the back corner of the store. "Let me know if you need any help."

Emma made a beeline for the rack of princess costumes and pulled out the iconic Snow White dress. "Found it!"

"Wait, Emma." Regina held up a green dress. "Isn't this lovely?"

"Yeah but I don't think Snow White wears green though."

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you could pick something else. I mean look at all the options around you." Regina sifted through the rack. "You could be any princess you wanted. How about this?" She pulled out a costume only to find that it was a Tinkerbell one, and quickly stashed it back. "All right, not that one, but what about this? I know you like purple and Sleeping Beauty has blonde hair just like yours. We could do your hair to match hers in the movie and you'd look so pretty."

"But I wanna be Snow White."

"Why though?"

"Because I do." Emma said petulantly.

 _Oh, the logic of a five year old._ "But Snow White is so…" Regina struggled to find words that were PG. "Insufferably irritating." She finally settled on.

"No she's not." Emma giggled. "She's so nice and pretty."

Just hearing the little girl praise the stupid princess like so was enough to make Regina curl her fists.  _Remember, the Snow White Emma thinks she likes isn't the actual one. It's a falsified version created by this complete imbecile named Disney. If Emma knew the truth she wouldn't worship the little brunette so much._ "All right. If that's the one you want then that's the one you shall have."

"Yay! I can't wait till Halloween."

Regina could, though.

* * *

Halloween night was bright, clear, and not too cold, an ideal night for trick or treating. Around 5:30 the voices of kids already on their sugar highs could be heard even from the depths of Regina's vast mansion.

"Can we go now?" Emma hopped from one foot to the other, clearly impatient. She'd worn her Snow White costume to school and hadn't taken it off since. The iconic short, cropped wig sat atop her head as it had been since 7 this morning; if Regina didn't know better she'd say that with dark hair Emma looked an awful lot like a young Snow.

"Just a moment, I want to get these dishes into the dishwasher first."

"Reginaaaaa. Please can we go now? Pretty please with a cherry on top? Pleaseeeee."

"All right, all right." Regina closed the dishwasher with a click. "I see someone's impatient."

"Well,  _duh._ " Emma answered flippantly. She began twirling around and around in the foyer, clearly loving the way her dress swished around. "I wanna get all the big candy bars before anyone else."

"Don't you think you've had enough candy for today?"

"Never." She reached up to open the door, and then looked back to see if Regina was following, but upon seeing the plain black peacoat Regina was pulling on, Emma immediately let out a gasp. "You can't wear that!"

"Why not?"

"It's Halloween, you have to wear a costume."

"She's right." A voice interrupted. Regina looked up to see Graham strolling through the open door.

"What are you wearing?" She wrinkled her nose as she accepted a chaste kiss from him. The usually casually dressed sheriff wore a full knight's outfit, down to the helmet and a shield held to the side.

"I thought the princess could use a knight." He responded, bowing in Emma's direction, eliciting a giggle from the little girl.

"You have to wear a costume." Emma insisted.

"Halloween's for kids," Regina explained patiently. "Not adults."

"Nuh uh. Graham's dressed up."

"Yeah, nuh uh." Graham repeated, shooting Regina a playful wink.

"Fine. What should I wear then? I don't have anything that could be a costume."

Emma tapped her chin and screwed up her face in a mock show of concentration. "I know!" She said finally. "You can be the Evil Queen!"

Oh, the irony. "Really."

"Yeah. Here." Emma handed Regina a plastic crown. "I won it during pin the grin on the jack o lantern today. And then you can put on a dress or something."

Regina rolled her eyes but took the crown anyway. "I'll be right back." Fifteen minutes later she came back downstairs in a long black dress. Her short hair had been styled back in smooth updo and she wore black eyeliner and dark lipstick.

"Better?"

"Much." Emma grinned. "Can we go now?"

"Not before we get a picture." Graham said as he reached into his bag for a camera. "Smile, ladies. Or should I say, Snow White and the Evil Queen."

* * *

"Regina, look how much candy I have!" Emma exclaimed as she shook her pillowcase. They'd just finished hitting up every house in Storybrooke.

"Wow. I certainly hope you don't eat that all tonight."

"Can we go back to Granny's?"

"Again? We've already gone three times." Regina stated.

"But she gives out big candy bars."

"Yeah, she gives out big candy bars." Graham repeated.

Regina glared at him, but couldn't help but smile.

"Fine. But this will the last time, and then we're going back home."

Emma smiled and nodded. "Ok."

As they walked back to Granny's, Emma glanced around and smiled. She'd never dressed up,

or gone out trick or treating before. She was enjoying the night and especially with Regina and Graham who were the nicest people she'd ever met.

"Thank you." She suddenly said.

"For what?" Regina asked.

"For today. This is my first time celebrating Halloween, and you made it special. Thank you." She repeated, hugging her waist.

"You're very welcome." Regina smiled. "I'm glad you're having fun."

The three continued walking, and as they approached Granny's, Emma's eyes doubled in size once again. She started running, but stopped when Regina's voice called behind her.

"Emma. Wait for us, sweetheart."

"Go on now." Graham stated once they approached her. "We'll wait for you here."

Emma ran, but within seconds came back running towards Regina.

"Regina." She whimpered, clinging to her peacoat. "I wanna go home."

"Emma." She knelt down. "What's wrong, honey?"

"I-i wanna go home. Please." She cried.

"Emma, what happened?" Graham asked gently.

"T-there's a clown." She sniffled. "I don't like clowns. Let's go home. I have enough candy already."

"There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just a costume. You have a princess costume, and they have a clown one. It's just a normal person."

"I'm still scared."

"Well, would it make you feel better if I went with you?" Graham asked softly.

Emma nodded shyly.

"Ok then." Graham smiled. "Let's go."

He picked up the small child, placing her on his hip.

"We'll be back soon."

Inside Granny's, it was packed due to her annual Halloween party. The walls were covered with the same old cheesy decorations she used each year. Granny, dressed up as a pumpkin, stood behind the counter, serving up bright red cups of "Bloody Hand Punch" (Kool-Aid and ginger ale) as she conversed with Storybrooke's citizens while Ruby rushed around from table to table, offering up snacks.

"Emma," a little girl dressed up in the iconic Princess Jasmine costume ran up. "You're here!"

"Duh." She leaned in close. "I already got three candy bars from Granny but she won't know if I get another."

Jasmine's eyes widened as she took in the amount of candy Emma held in her heavy pillowcase. "Wow. I wish my daddy would let me get that much but he says that candy is bad for you."

"Don't worry. I'll share. Now come on." She linked her arm through her friend's. "Let's go get some more."

"Ten minutes, girls." Graham added before he started towards the back, where the dartboard was.

* * *

Despite the amount of candy Emma had ingested throughout the day, by the time they were rounding the corner around Regina's place she was out cold, snoring softly in Graham's arms.

"Thanks for coming with." Regina said as she unlocked her front door, stepping aside to let Graham and Emma inside.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for anything. Your Majesty."

Regina had to suppress a smirk. He had no idea how ironic his remark had been.

"I must say, you look quite dashing in that dress. Black suits you."

"Of course it does." She said as she led him upstairs. "Right in here."

He gently placed Emma down on the bed while Regina reached down to remove her crown. Tucking her blanket in around her, she kissed her forehead before exiting the room, shutting the door halfway just the way Emma liked it.

"I should be going." Graham said. "I'm sure I'll be dragging Leroy home from the Rabbit Hole pretty soon."

"Can't that wait?" Regina murmured. "I'm sure attending to your queen is more important than some drunk."

"Well…" Graham started but almost as if on cue his phone rang. "And there it is." He sighed. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"If you're lucky…"

"Good night, milady."

"Good night." Clicking the door shut behind her, she suddenly saw that Graham had left his camera behind on the hall table. Oh well, she'd return it to him tomorrow. Regina began scrolling through the pictures. There was one of Emma and Regina, both smiling widely for the camera; one of the three of them; Emma accepting a rose from Graham the knight, Emma and her friend Jasmine; Emma, Granny, and Ruby; another of Emma and Regina; and another and another.

Regina smiled to herself as she took in how happy everyone was in the pictures. Including herself.

 _Halloween hadn't been so bad. Almost...fun, even._ She decided.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

When fall arrived in Storybrooke, it arrived with a bang, suddenly out of nowhere much like the way Storybrooke just appeared out of thin air. One day it was hot and sunny and the next cool and crispy, colorful leaves littering the streets. Rain began to fall too, drenching the small town as Storybrooke's citizens replaced their shorts and tank tops with rain jackets and tall boots.

"Oh, it's time for recess." Mrs. Smith closed the book she'd been reading from. Like cannons, the kindergarteners shot up from their seat on the colorful rug in the center of the room and ran towards their cubbies to grab their coats.

"Look at my jacket." Emma said as she zipped up her brand new rain coat that Regina had bought her just the day before. It was a lovely dark red, unlike the other bright colored clothes Emma owned, but Regina had said that the color suited her. "Isn't it pretty?"

"Yeah." Jasmine replied, pulling on her tall boots. "I like it. Ready to go?"

"You bet!" Emma and Jasmine joined the crowd of kids racing towards the open door.

"No running!" Mrs. Smith called, though it was futile. Despite the heavy rain recess was recess, the weather having virtually no effect on the exciting prospects that lay outside.

"Yuck, it's all muddy out." Jasmine wrinkled her nose.

"I like it." Emma declared.

"Want to play hopscotch?"

"Sure." Emma reached into her pocket for a piece of chalk and began drawing on the wet pavement. It took a few tries but she eventually got the layout of the game out.

"You can go first." Jasmine offered the blonde a stone she'd found on the ground. Emma took it gratefully and started hopping.

"Whoa. That was close." Jasmine said when Emma nearly slipped on the mud that was spread out throughout the playground.

"Yeah but I didn't fall." Emma stepped back proudly. "Your turn."

Jasmine went, carefully hopping to avoid the mud puddles. Nearby, a group of older boys were flinging mud at each other, much to the displeasure of the teacher monitoring recess.

"No throwing mud!" The dark haired teacher called, but once her back was turned the fight resumed.

"Alright, it's your turn again."

Emma walked up again, and that's when it happened. Her left foot was about to land on the square with number 4 when a large ball of mud came flying in her direction.

"Watch out!" Jasmine called, but it was too late. The mud landed on the square a split second before Emma's foot did, causing her to wobble violently before skidding forwards, landing hard on her butt, mud splattering everywhere.

"Oh my gosh are you okay?"

Emma didn't respond; she sat in the mud, looking kind of stunned as she took in her dirty clothes.

"What's going on over here?" A voice said from behind. It belonged to the dark haired teacher who was monitoring recess for the day. "Ohhh." She said, upon noticing mud covered Emma. "Oh dear."

Emma took one look at the teacher and promptly burst into tears.

"It's ok, honey. Come on let's get you cleaned up." The teacher held out her hand towards Emma, who reached out and took it shyly, wiping at her eyes.

The dark haired teacher led Emma inside the building and down the hall, turning right. "I'm Ms. Blanchard. I teach fifth grade."

"Emma."

"Well Emma, it's nice to meet you. I don't think I've ever seen you around here before. Are you new?"

"Yeah."

"Welcome to Storybrooke then." She pushed open a door and turned on a light. "The nurse isn't here today but no worries." She helped Emma take off her dirty jacket and placed it aside, directing her to sit on a plastic chair. "Now, first things first. Are you hurt?"

Slowly, Emma held up her hands to reveal angry scrapes on her palms.

"Ouch." The teacher clucked her tongue sympathetically. "That's not fun." She reached into a cabinet for some antiseptic wipes and a box of bandages. "Ok, this is gonna sting a bit."

Sting was a bit of an understatement. "Owwwwwww." Emma howled as the wipe made contact with her skin. She quickly withdrew her hand. "That hurts."

"I know and I'm sorry, but the quicker we get this done the sooner you can get out of your wet clothes."

Emma sighed. "Kay." She scrunched up her face as Ms. Blanchard finished cleaning her hands.

"Which band-aid would you like? I have Hello Kitty, Batman, Barbie, and Elmo."

"Batman." Emma said automatically. "Elmo's for babies. Yuck."

"I like Batman too." Ms. Blanchard unwrapped the band-aids and placed them over the cuts. "Funny, I would've pegged you for Barbie."

"Nah. I don't really play with dolls." Emma squirmed in the chair. "Can I change now?"

"Of course." Ms. Blanchard opened a closet door and placed a box at Emma's feet. "This is the lost and found. Nobody's came to claim this stuff, so you can just wear some of it home." She rifled through the box, wrinkling her nose as she held up a sweatshirt that was clearly too big. "Hmm. I don't think there's anything here in your size."

"It's ok." Emma took the sweatshirt. "I'm used to it."

"To what, having clothes that are too big?"

"Uh huh. I used to wear hand me downs a lot."

Ms. Blanchard took Emma's discarded, wet clothes and placed them in a plastic bag. "Lots of siblings?"

" _Foster_ siblings."

"Oh!" And then the realization hit her. "Emma. New here. Foster siblings. You're the girl that the mayor took in."

"Yeah. She's my foster mother."

"How do you like living with her?"

"She's the best!"

" _Really?"_

"Yeah, really. She took me shopping and trick or treating and makes the best apple pie."

"Apple pie, huh? I'm not really a fan of apples."

"Me neither." Emma stuck out her tongue. "But Regina makes really good apple pie."

Ms. Blanchard laughed. "Well that's good then" She handed Emma the bag. "Here are your clothes. The mud should come right out in the wash."

"Okay."

"Come on, I think recess is over. I'll take you back to your class. Who's your teacher?"

"Mrs. Smith."

"Oh yeah? How do you like her?"

"She's ok. She makes us read a lot."

"Reading's important, sweetie."

"I know. But I don't have to like it."

"I guess you don't." They came to a stop in front of the door to the kindergarten class. "Here we are."

"Thanks Ms. Blanchard."

"It was no problem. And like I said before, it was very nice to meet you Emma."

"You too. Bye!"

As Mary Margaret watched Emma walk away and into the classroom, she was struck by a sudden feeling of gut wrenching sadness. But why?

* * *

"What are you wearing?"

Regina did a double take as Emma approached her. Instead of the cute little red coat and dark jeans she'd went to school in, the little girl wore an oversized gray sweatshirt and a pair of blue sweats. Her backpack was swung over a shoulder and her other hand clutched a large grocery bag.

"I fell in the mud today and got my clothes dirty." Emma's lip began to quiver. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok, dear. The mud will come out in the wash. Did you get hurt?"

Emma held up her hands. "Yeah. It's ok, this really nice teacher helped me and everything. She gave me Batman band-aids. There she is!" She cried, upon seeing a petite looking woman exit the building.

"Who?"

"Her. Ms. Blanchard."

Suddenly, Regina felt as though she'd swallowed something sour. "Ms B-blanchard?"

"Yeah. Over here!" She waved.

And much to Regina's displeasure the teacher came trotting over. "Hello, Emma. Mayor Mills."

Regina just sneered at her before turning away.  _Why? Out of all the teachers. Why?!_

"I was telling Regina all about you." Emma chattered, completely oblivious to her foster mother's discomfort. "She likes Batman too."

"Oh really?" Mary Margaret glanced up and noticed Regina's face, all while nodding and smiling along to the constant stream of dialogue flowing from Emma's mouth.

"And then Mrs. Smith played the piano for us and we all got to sing along she played the itsy bitsy spider which I know all the words to because every teacher I've ever had taught us that song and then we sat on the magic carpet which isn't really magic of course but she calls it that and we had show and tell and…"

"Emma." Regina interrupted. "Come on, we have to go."

"But I'm not done telling Ms. Blanchard about what I did today."

"You can tell her tomorrow." Regina began to practically drag Emma through the parking lot.

"Bye." Emma waved as she followed Regina to the car. "See you tomorrow."

"Emma, I don't want you talking to Ms. Blanchard." Regina said once they were situated in her car.

"Why?"

"Because…" God. Regina was grasping at straws here. She had no reason for Emma to stay away from the insipidly cheerful little teacher. Oh yeah, except for the fact that the woman had ruined Regina's life. But she couldn't tell Emma that. "She's not a good person."

"But she's so nice. She gave me Batman band-aids."

"Well appearances can be deceiving."

Despite Emma's muttered agreement, Regina knew that there was no way she could keep the little girl away from Mary Margaret.

If there hadn't only been one school in Storybrooke Regina would've transferred Emma, immediately.

* * *

Mary Margaret wasn't the only person Emma was becoming friends with. Every Wednesday afternoon, kindergarten ended early, at 11:30, so Regina would pick Emma up and take her out to lunch at Granny's before dropping her off at daycare.

It had become a routine; Emma always ordered a grilled cheese while Regina got a wrap, and they always shared an order of fries. Like clockwork, Leroy showed up, usually bleary eyed, at the diner around 11:30 as well, though he was there for breakfast while Emma and Regina were there for an early lunch. Despite his gruff demeanor, Emma had struck up a friendship with the grouchy little man, usually her chattering away about what she did at school while Leroy nodded and occasionally chimed in with a sarcastic comment. While he didn't really speak much to anyone he was always nice to Emma.

There was no love lost between him and Regina, but unlike with Ms. Blanchard Regina had not forbade her to speak to Leroy. He was just an enemy by association, not exactly on the same level of hatred as Mary Margaret. Not that Emma knew this little fact, of course.

After lunch, Regina would take her to Ms. Poppins's daycare, which was across the street from Granny's. She'd drop her off, press a kiss atop her head, and then walk back to her car, waving as she drove away before Emma headed inside to play with the other kids until Regina came to pick her up again.

But not today. Earlier at school, Emma had been taking an envelope from Mrs. Smith up to the office when she'd heard the office lady (at least that's what she called her because her name was too hard to pronounce) say on the phone that it was the mayor's birthday this weekend and that she had to call the flower shop to send a happy birthday gift basket.

 _Regina's birthday?_ Emma had thought.  _Why didn't she tell me?_ If it had been  _Emma's_ birthday coming up she would've shouted it from every rooftop. She loved birthdays despite that the only parties she'd ever had were sad little ones thrown by group homes. But adults were funny like that; they never liked to talk about their birthdays.

Emma knew that she had to buy Regina a present. She had a little money left that Anna the social worker had given her "for in case of emergencies", and her foster mother had been so nice to her. Except...how could she surprise Regina when she was always with her?

And then it hit her. Today was Wednesday, the day that Regina dropped Emma off at daycare. She usually spent three hours there. Three whole hours in which she could go out and buy Regina a nice gift.

So when Regina walked her to the door of Ms. Poppin's daycare center, Emma stood there as her foster mother hugged and kissed her, and then watched her walk back to her car, waving all the way. And when Emma was certain that Regina's car was gone, going back in the direction of her office, she stepped off the front step of the daycare.

Emma wasn't supposed to cross the street by herself, as that was one of Regina's rules, but she'd done so in the past, before coming to Storybrooke. Her previous foster parents hadn't really cared where she went or what she did as long as they continued to receive money from the state for taking her in.

So she expertly hit the button and waited until the little white person showed up before walking in the direction of somewhere she'd never imagined she'd go.

Mr. Gold's shop.

At school, she'd spent a good part of the day wondering where to buy Regina's gift. The grocery store? Nahh, there really wasn't too much there. It wasn't like she could buy Regina a bag of carrots or something. Clothes? Emma didn't know what Regina's size was. And clothes didn't seem special enough. Emma wanted to buy Regina something  _extra_ special, to show how much she appreciated everything Regina had done for her.

"Where should I go?" Emma had asked Jasmine as they colored pictures of their houses. They sat at the same table, across from each other, which was perfect because it gave them plenty of chances to talk.

"I dunno. The hardware store?"

"What would I buy there? A hammer?"

"Good point. Oh, I know. You could buy her perfume."

"More coloring, less talking ladies." Mrs. Smith had called out.

Emma and Jasmine had rolled their eyes in their teacher's direction before continuing to whisper.

"Women like perfume right?" Jasmine continued.

"Yeah but where do you buy that?"

Jasmine shrugged as she selected a bright orange crayon. "No idea."

The girls were silent for a moment as they colored. A few minutes later, Jasmine spoke up again. "I know! You could go to Mr. Gold's."

Emma's eyes had widened to the size of saucers. "Mr. Gold's? But he's so scary."

Jasmine giggled. "I heard he's a dragon. Breathes fire and everything."

"No way!"

"Yes way. But if you want to find something nice for Regina that's where you have to go. My daddy said that he has  _everything_. Like, everything."

"You've never been inside before?"

"No. My daddy won't let me. He said Gold's dangerous."

"Same with Regina."

"But hey you need a gift right?"

 _Regina would be so mad if she knew where I was right now._ Emma gulped as she stood before the door to the shop. Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door, listen to the cheerful jingle that didn't quite match the dark interior.

"Ah, Emma!" The strange man came limping out to the front to greet her. "What are you doing in here?"

"Shopping."

"Does Regina know you're here?"

"Yeah."

Mr. Gold fixed her with a stare that made her so uncomfortable she looked down at her boots. "Really, dearie?"

"Yeah."

"What can I do for you today?"

 _Don't be scared, Emma. Don't be scared._ Emma silently chanted to herself as she faced the imposing man before. "I need a gift for Regina."

"That's right, it's her birthday this weekend. Such a dedicated little girl. Well, go ahead and look around."

"Do you have perfume or anything?"

"Perfume?"

"Yeah cuz I know she likes it."

"No, sorry I don't. My shop mostly specializes in antiques."

"What are antiques?" Emma asked as she looked curiously around. To her, the store seemed to be mostly filled with old, dark things.

"Old, hard to find artifacts."

"Oh." She stared dubiously at a pair of dolls whose expressions were ones of horror. Suddenly creeped out she took a big step backwards.

"Yes, those are quite lovely aren't they?" Mr. Gold, who had somehow appeared across the counter from Emma, spoke up.

 _Lovely_ wasn't the word Emma would've used to describe the weird dolls but she nodded nonetheless. "What's that?" She pressed her hand against the glass to indicate a lamp that looked a lot like the genie's lamp in  _Aladdin._

"Oh, just an old gravy boat. Here," Mr. Gold reached into a case and pulled something out, swinging it before Emma's face. "take a look at this."

"Wow." Emma breathed. Mr. Gold held a  _beautiful_ necklace. It was simple, a gold feather on a gold chain. "This is perfect."

"It is, isn't it?"

But then something occurred to her. She reached into her pocket and withdrew the bills Anna had pressed into her hands, slowly counting them. $5. She only had 5 dollars. There was no way a beautiful necklace like that could only be worth $5.

"How much is it?"

"$60."

"Oh. Well I only have $5 so what do you have that I can buy with that?" Maybe she should've stuck to perfume after all.

Obviously Emma didn't know that perfume cost more than $5.

"You didn't let me finish. It's $60 but for you, it's on the house."

" _What?_ Why?"

"It just is, dearie."

Emma reached out to take the necklace but before she could grab it Mr. Gold withdrew his hand. "It's on the house, but only if you make a deal with me."

"What kinda deal?"

"I want us to be friends."

Um...Emma didn't know what to say to that. Why would Mr. Gold, of all people, want to be friends with her? But the necklace was  _so_ pretty and  _so_ perfect for Regina, so she found herself nodding.

"Deal."

"All right, then." He reached for a box and placed the necklace inside. "It's all yours."

"Thank you, Mr. Gold."

"Oh, no thanks necessary. In fact it will be  _I_ who should be thanking you."

"What for?"

He just fixed her with one of his weird stares. "You'll find out soon."

Oookay.

"Don't hesitate to come back and visit." He called as Emma exited the shop. If she'd turned around she would've seen the triumphant smirk on his face.

Emma stuffed the box into her pocket before walking to the daycare building. She looked at the town clock, wondering how late she was, but as usual it was broken, unmoving. With a shrug Emma continued along her way, smiling at the thought of how happy Regina would be when given her gift.

* * *

During dinner, the phone rang, so Regina stood up to answer while Ema continued to pick at her plate full of green beans. She didn't like green beans (hated them even more than apples, even) but Regina had promised her some ice cream if she finished her beans.

A few minutes later Emma could hear the click clacking of Regina's heels as her foster mother walked back into the dining room.

"Do you know who was just on the phone, Emma?"

"Your assistant?" Emma guessed, shoveling a yucky forkful of beans into her mouth.

"No. That was Ms. Poppins. She was calling to tell me that you were twenty minutes late to daycare today."

Uh oh. Emma looked up to see that Regina's mouth was in a thin line, which was  _never_ a good sign. "Oh."

"Which is funny, since I specifically remember dropping you off at 12:28 exactly. Which would make you a couple minutes early, even."

Emma looked down at her plate.

"Do you want to tell me where you were?" When there was no response, Regina slammed her hands against the back of a chair, causing Emma to jump. "Emma! Where did you go?!"

"I-I…"

"Well? You better start talking, young lady."

"I-I…" Should she lie, make something up? Emma knew that if Regina knew she'd been to Mr. Gold's she be  _really_ mad.

"Emma! Answer me!"

But Emma was no good at lying, even though she'd had to do it a lot to cover up mistakes or to please her foster parents. She'd just stutter and blush, making it very obvious. That was why she had been punished so often.

"I was at...Mr. Gold's." She finally said, bracing herself for the inevitable punishment.

" _What?_ " Regina sputtered. "Mr Gold's? What the hell were you doing there?"

"I…"

"You know what? It doesn't even matter. I think I remember telling you not to go there, didn't I? I told you to stay away from him! Such a simple little instruction and you couldn't even be bothered to follow it!"

Emma began to tremble; she'd never seen Regina mad before but right now she was acting a lot like Mr. Thompson, one of her old foster fathers who'd always yelled so loudly it felt like the house was shaking. He had been so scary Emma all but hid under her bed each time she saw his car pull up into the driveway.

"I can't believe it." Regina made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. "So you just sneak away from daycare and go to the most dangerous part of town, deliberately disobeying me."

"I'm sorry." Emma whispered.

"Yeah, well you should be." Regina snapped. "Go to your room. No TV or dessert for the next week and I'm canceling your playdate tomorrow."

"B-but I'm supposed to go over to Jasmine's and play with her tiger."

"Too bad. You should've thought about that before breaking the rules."

Tears streamed down her face, clouding her vision as she walked out of the kitchen. It wasn't the yelling that she hated, really. She was used to it, though of course it made it no less scary. No, she didn't like that she'd disappointed Regina.

"What were you even doing there? I provided you with everything you needed. What could you have possibly needed so badly that you broke the rules?"

Emma didn't answer as she started up the stairs.

"Emma, I'm talking to you. Why did you go to Mr. Gold's?"

_No, I can't tell her. Her present has to be a surprise._

"EMMA!"

But she couldn't take the yelling anymore. In a fluid motion she reached into her backpack, which was resting at the top of the stairs, closed her fingers around the velvet box and launched it over the railing. The box landed on the hardwood floor, the necklace splaying out everywhere.

"This!" Emma shouted. "I went to get this, ok? It was supposed to be a present for you." And then she ran into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

Regina paused outside Emma's room. Her fist was positioned over the door, its owner unsure of whether or not it should knock.

"Emma?" Regina called softly. She could hear sobs from behind the door. "Emma."

After the little girl's outburst, she'd stood there, completely blindsided before walking over and picking up the box that Emma had thrown. It was lying on it's side, the contents inside scattered on the floor nearby. Regina bent down and picked it up, holding up a beautiful gold necklace.

" _It was supposed to be a present for you."_

It was obvious now. Emma had somehow found out that Regina's birthday was this weekend and had sought out a present for her, refusing to answer her questions because she wanted it to be a surprise. It was  _so_  sweet that Regina's heart filled at the thought, and all she wanted was to scoop Emma up in a tight hug.

When had Regina become Cora? Everything that Regina had said earlier, it was practically word for word what Cora used to yell. Regina could still remember being sent to bed without dinner for many nights in a row, crying into her pillow as her mind replayed Cora's loud, harsh words. She'd vowed never to become as awful as her mother.

Slowly, Regina pushed open the door. Emma lay facedown on her bed, her shoulders shaking with sobs as she cried into her pillow. "Em?" She crossed the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Hey."

Emma turned to look at Regina. Her face was completely red and teary. "What?"

"I like the necklace."

"It was…" Emma hiccuped as she sat up. "supposed to be a surprise."

"I know. I'm sorry I yelled, sweetheart."

"You were scary." Emma said as she hugged her baby blanket close. "You reminded me of Mr. Thompson."

"Who?"

"Old foster father who liked to yell a lot. 'Specially when drunk."

 _Yikes._ "I didn't mean to yell and I'm sorry that I scared you."

Emma sniffled in response.

"But I was mad. Not because you were late, but because you lied to me. And broke the rules. You could've been hurt, or worse. If something happened to you I don't know what I would've done. I meant it when I said that you were to stay away from Mr. Gold. He's dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt. I need to know that you'll follow my rules. They're for your own good."

Emma hiccuped loudly. "I know."

"I know you're not a bad girl, Emma, and again I'm sorry I lost my temper."

"It's ok."

"Promise you'll follow the rules from now on?"

Emma looped her pinky through Regina's. "I promise."

Regina pressed a kiss atop Emma's head. "Good girl."

"Did you really like the gift?"

"Of course I did. It was the most beautiful gift I have ever received."

"Really?"

"Yes really. I think I'll wear it everyday.

Emma beamed. "Yay. I'm glad you like it."

"Now, go wash your face and come finish your dinner."

Emma scooted up off the bed. "Can I have some ice cream if I finish my beans?"

"No." Regina answered, and her response was immediately followed by a loud groan. "I don't want to punish you but you broke the rules."

"But it was for a good cause."

"Yes but you still broke the rules. It's just for a week. You'll survive."

Emma sighed melodramatically. "No I won't."

"I guarantee you will."

 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Regina opened her eyes to her dark bedroom. Huh. Was it time to get up already? Looking at the bright red numbers of her digital clock she was startled to find that it was only 3 am, a full 4 hours before she had to be up for work. So why was she awake?

A second later, she had her answer. A shrill scream sounded from down the hall, causing her hand to leap to her chest.  _Emma._ There was something wrong, there had to be. Loud sobs and whimpers were filling the otherwise silent house. Without another thought she grabbed the first sharp, weapon-y object (which happened to be a stiletto) and ran out.

"Emma!" Regina cried as she burst into the girl's bedroom. "Is everything alright?" She looked around wildly, half expecting a burglar or something, not registering in her half asleep state that a thief would've set off the alarm.

But then she noticed that the room was empty, and that Emma was sitting up in bed, her chest heaving up and down, her body wracked with sobs as her hands clutched the blankets that were tangled in a heap around her. Her eyes were wide with fear.

"What's wrong?"

Emma was crying too hard to answer coherently. "I-Mr. Thompson-really angry...didn't mean to!"

Regina immediately scooped Emma up into her arms, rubbing soothing circles on her back. "Shh. It's alright, sweetheart. It was just a dream." She began murmuring comforting things into Emma's hair, things that her father used to whisper when she would jolt awake with nightmares as a child. Things that never really understood over her sobs, but things that would comfort her all the same.

And comfort her they did. Slowly, Emma's sobs quieted, calming down until they were reduced to hiccups.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" In the dark of the night, Regina knew that it was important that she kept her voice soft and calm, in order to not startle Emma even more.

Emma shook her head as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

Regina nudged her playfully. "Come on, it'll help you feel better. When I was a child, I used to have nightmares too. They scared me pretty badly, but talking about them with my father always helped me. He would remind me that they weren't real and that I was safe."

"But Regina, they  _were_ real."

Of course. Regina should've known that the nightmares were actually memories of Emma's old, abusive foster parents.

"You're right. But it doesn't matter, because you're safe here. I won't let him, or anyone for that matter, get to you. You're safe with me, Emma."

Emma sniffled. "Really?"

"Really."

Emma attempted to smile but her expression fell short of a real grin. "Okay." She said uncertainly, looking tentatively around the room.

"Do you think you can go back to sleep now?"

Emma shrugged a shoulder. "I guess."

Regina could tell that Emma was still unconvinced. "Tell you what. Would it help if you came and slept with me in my room tonight?"

Emma nodded immediately.

"All right, come on." Regina reached her hand out, and Emma grabbed it, tucking her baby blanket under the other arm as she allowed her foster mother to lead her out of her room.

Regina settled Emma into the other side of the bed before snuggling down under the soft blankets. "All good?"

"Yup." Emma settled herself into Regina's arms, which the brunette had subconsciously wrapped around the little girl. "Good night."

Emma's eyes closed immediately, as she was clearly tired out from the day's activities and her nightmare, but Regina didn't allow herself to sleep, instead choosing to continue to comb through Emma's tangled hair and rub gentle circles on the girl's back until every last hiccup was gone and Emma was finally still.

* * *

The first thing Emma registered was how soft and silky the sheets beneath her bare feet were. She'd never felt anything so... _princess-y._ At least that's what she thought a princess would sleep on, since they were royals and all.

Where was she? Her bed was fitted with cotton sheets, soft but not quite the same as the ones she was currently laying on. Something lay across her waist, holding her tightly, and a larger hand encased her smaller one.

 _Oh yeah._ Emma thought as she opened her eyes. Sunlight was streaming into the room, and as her eyes adjusted to the light she realized that she was in Regina's room. Everything came flooding back to her: the scary nightmare, Regina rushing in holding a big shoe, and then hugging her and comforting her before taking her hand and leading her into her big bed.

Even though it had began badly, Emma decided that last night had been one of the best nights she'd ever experienced. No one had ever comforted her like that. It was something that her mother would do if she had one.

Maybe Regina could be her mommy. Maybe if Emma was good enough Regina would let her stay and even adopt her someday. But that was wishful thinking; no one ever liked Emma enough to keep her for more than several months, let alone adopt her.

Emma decided not to think about that for now. Not when she was so comfy. Mmm. It was so warm and cozy in bed. Even though it was a nice day and surely Regina would agree to taking her to play in the park, all Emma wanted to do was stay in bed for a long, long time.

But it seemed like Regina had other ideas. Her brow began to crease as she stirred, and then her eyes popped open fully, brown meeting green as Emma stared back at her foster mother.

"Morning."

"Morning." Emma responded.

Regina sat up and stretched, taking the blankets with her. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah."

Regina smiled. "I'm glad."

There was a loud growl, and Emma looked down at her stomach. "Oops."

Regina poked her stomach playfully. "Sounds like someone's hungry. Let me guess, you want apple pancakes."

"With lots and lots of syrup!"

"Of course. How could I forget?" Regina shoved her feet into her slippers and pulled on her robe. "Go, run along and get dressed and meet me downstairs."

Moments later, Emma was sitting at the kitchen table, swinging her legs back and forth with anticipation at the delicious smell coming from the stove.

"Are they ready yet?"

"Almost." Regina replied. "Why don't you set the table?"

"Already did."

"Wow, someone's impatient." Regina commented as she flipped the last pancake onto the plate waiting by the stove.

"Well,  _duh._ Cuz they're yummy."

"Thank you. And you said you didn't like apples."

"I don't. 'Cept when you put em in pancakes and pie. Oooh pie. Can we have some tonight?"

"We'll see." Regina joined Emma at the table and grabbed a pancake for herself. "So you know that Thanksgiving is next week right?"

Emma speed nodded. "Yeah Mrs. Smith said that we are going to decorate the classroom with hand turkeys and corna-cornu...copias and wear pilgrim outfits we started reading about the first Thanksgiving and how…"

"That sounds lovely." Regina interrupted, knowing full well that if she didn't stop Emma there the little girl could ramble on and on for hours. "I'm sure you'll have lots of fun. Since it's Saturday I was thinking that we could go shopping for Thanksgiving dinner."

"But I wanted to go to the park." Emma protested.

"Well maybe we can go after. Today is my only day available."

Emma pouted. "Okay."

"You know, as boring as it sounds, you  _need_ to come with me."

"Why?"

"Because it means you get to help me pick out the best groceries to make our big Thanksgiving dinner."

"Are we gonna have turkey and stuffing and pie and-"

"Yes, yes we are. So you see why you need to come with me?"

"Yup!" Hopping off her chair, Emma carried her plate to the sink. "I can't wait for Thanksgiving now. I've never had a real Thanksgiving dinner before. I mean they had one at the group homes an' stuff but it was lame."

"Well then, dear, since it's going to be your first I guess we'll just have to make it extra special now don't we?"

* * *

Looking back on it, when Regina had said that they had to make Emma's Thanksgiving special she hadn't meant  _this._ Now, she would do anything to take back her words.

Their shopping trip had started out innocuously at first. Together, Emma and Regina picked out a nice, big turkey that had taken the two of them together to lift into the cart. Regina had thought that the turkey was a bit too big for just the two of them but Emma had wanted it, and so Regina decided that leftovers wouldn't be too big of a deal.

Selecting the ingredients for the stuffing, cranberry sauce, and green beans had been fairly easy. Of course, Emma had stuck out her tongue at the prospect of the green beans, but Regina had reminded her that they had to have some sort of vegetable. Either that, or no dessert.

It was when they were in the produce section, looking for the best potatoes to make mashed potatoes that things started to go wrong.

"Remember, Emma, not any of the potatoes with the green sprouts growing."

"I know, I know." Emma huffed. "I can do it."

"I hope so." Regina looked down to consult her shopping list. Just the potatoes and they were good to go.

"Hey, look!" Emma cried, causing Regina to look up. "There's Ms. Blanchard."

Before Regina could stop her, Emma started waving wildly. "Hi Ms. Blanchard!"

And predictably, the irritating little life-ruiner came trotting over, a shopping basket balanced on one arm. "Hello, Emma." She smiled. "Mayor Mills." She added politely.

Regina just nodded curtly and turned around, pretending to consult the oh so important contents of her list.

"What ya doin here?"

"Oh, just doing some shopping." Ms. Blanchard held up her basket, which was full of ordinary items like eggs, bread, and milk. "You?"

"Same."

"I can see that. That's a lot of food for two people." The teacher commented.

 _None of your business._ Regina thought snarkily to herself.

"It's for Thanksgiving." Emma responded. "We're gonna have a big turkey and mashed potatoes and green beans which are yucky but Regina says we have to have veggies or else no dessert and how can there be no dessert with dinner that would just be awful dontcha think?"

"Yes, that would be quite awful." Mary Margaret replied with a laugh.

"What are you doin for Thanksgiving?"

"Oh, just the usual. Going to curl up with a good book and enjoy the four day weekend."

Regina had to bite her lip to stop from laughing out loud. Mary Margaret's words were as pathetic as her cursed persona. Thanks to Regina, Snow White had been reduced to a lonely little loser who spent all of her time with her precious books.

 _You were alone, just like her for a long time though._ A little niggling voice inside reminded her. Well, not anymore. Now she had Emma.

"You're not gonna eat with anyone?"

"Nah, I like to take the time to myself and relax."

_Also known as I don't have anyone._

"But doesn't it get lonely?" Emma asked dubiously.

"Not really."

 _Lies._ Regina thought to herself.  _Poor loser._

"I know!" Emma said suddenly. "Why don't you come eat with us?"

"Uhh…" Mary Margaret's eyes flickered up to Regina. "I don't know, Emma." She stammered.

"Aww, come on. It'll be fun!"

"I wouldn't want to impose."

"You wouldn't be 'posin."

" _Imposing._ " Mary Margaret corrected.

As Regina listened to their little exchange she gripped the cart's handle so tightly her knuckles grew white.  _No, please no._ There was no way she could sit there and make polite small talk with her sworn enemy.

"Yeah, yeah. Please Ms. Blanchard. Please come eat with us. Don't you want to hang out with me?"

"Of course I do, Emma…"

"Then what are you waiting for? Say yes. You know you want to!"

"Well, it  _does_ sound fun."

"I told you."

"But what does Regina think? Is it ok with her?"

At the sound of her name, Regina snapped to attention. She opened her mouth to make up some excuse why the insipid little teacher couldn't harp in on her perfectly planned Thanksgiving when Emma cut in.

"Of course it's ok with her." Emma said sassily. She looked up at Regina. "Right?"

"I…" Regina stuttered. Part of her wanted to say no; there was no freaking way she was going to spend her Thanksgiving with the brat who'd singlehandedly ruined her life. But there was another part of her, the part that Emma and her adorable little puppy eyes had completely taken over that just couldn't say no to the little girl.

"Please." Emma stuck out her lower lip, her eyes wide. "Pretty please, Regina?" She was completely oblivious to Regina's inner turmoil. "You said you wanted to make my Thanksgiving special and if Ms. Blanchard comes it will be super super special."

"I don't know, Emma."

"But Regina it'll be super fun. And we can't let Ms. Blanchard eat all alone."

 _Actually, yes we can._ Regina mentally answered.  _I have absolutely no problem with it._

Mary Margaret stood to the side, looking uncomfortable as she watched Emma stare up at Regina, her hands clasped beneath her chin.

"Pretty pretty please. I won't ask for anything ever again."

"Ever again, huh?"

"Yeah. I promise."

 _Screw her promises. No is no._ Regina took a deep breath and prepared to say no, but suddenly she imagined Emma's face falling as her lips formed the words  _no, sorry._ And she just couldn't stand the idea of Emma being disappointed.

"All right." She replied. "Ms. Blanchard can come."

"Yay!" Emma hugged Regina around the waist, and then turned around and hugged Mary Margaret. "This is gonna be so fun."

Oh yeah, fun. If fun meant: pretending that she didn't hate Mary Margaret so much she'd rather eat her toenails and burn her eyebrows off than spend time with her, this would be  _oh so fun._

As Regina and Emma exited the grocery store, Emma chattering happily about how excited she was for Thanksgiving, Regina thought that things couldn't get any worse than they already had. How wrong she'd been.

"Careful, Emma." Regina murmured. Emma had insisted on wheeling the cart to the car, something that Regina was quickly regretting (along with how she'd agreed to letting Snow White ruin her Thanksgiving), due to the fact that the cart was ridiculously overloaded. "You don't want to hit anyone's car."

"I know, I know." But the cart was piled so high with food that Emma could barely see in front of her. Suddenly, there was a thump, and the card bounced as it inevitably hit someone.

"Watch where you're going, dearie." Came the annoyed voice of Mr. Gold. He stepped around the cart, clearly ready to chew out whoever had ran over his foot but as he caught sight of Emma his disgruntled expression quickly disintegrated into a neutral one. "Oh, hello Emma."

"Hi. Sorry I ran over your foot."

"It's quite all right." He replied. "Hello Regina."

Just like with Mary Margaret, Regina nodded stiffly. "Hello."

Gold gestured to their overflowing cart. "Doing some grocery shopping, I see. That's quite an amount for two people."

"It's for Thanksgiving."

"Oh, I see."

And before Regina knew what was happening, Emma opened her big mouth. "Why don't you eat with us too Mr. Gold?"

"What a lovely request. I would love to."

Emma turned to Regina. "Is that ok? I mean we already invited Ms. Blanchard and we have all this food."

The corners of Gold's mouth turned up to form a wry smile. "You invited Ms. Blanchard."

"Yes we did." Regina snapped.

"How generous of you."

Regina squinted at him; it seemed as though the irritating man was trying to hold in laughter. But why? How could he possibly know...unless he had his memories. Before she could dwell on this, though, Emma interrupted her thoughts.

"So can he come Regina? I mean I know you're not exactly friends with him but he was nice to me when I was buying your birthday present."

"Emma!" Regina hissed. "That's not something you say."

"Sorry. But can he come?"

Regina sighed deeply; Emma's puppy dog eyes were appearing again. "Sure."

Gold smiled eerily. "I'll be over around 4 with a plate of rolls."

"Yeah, you do that." Regina muttered. "Come on, Emma."

Regina was in a severely bad mood by the time they stopped at Granny's for lunch. Of course, Emma didn't pick up on it as she trotted happily by her foster mother's side as they entered the diner. Regina wished she could be happy for Emma; giving the little girl the Thanksgiving she deserved was the most important thing, right? Even if that Thanksgiving included (gulp) Snow White and Rumplestilskin.

Emma pushed herself up onto her usual seat at the counter. "Hi Ruby."

"Hello there, Emma." Ruby responded. "Let me guess, both of you will have your usual."

"Yuppers!"

"Someone's in a good mood today." Granny commented as she came walking by to take a to go order at the cash register. "Excited for Thanksgiving?"

"Very. Ms. Blanchard and Mr. Gold are coming too."

Granny raised an eyebrow as she looked at Regina, who smiled tightly at her. "Really?" It was no secret that Regina had a particular dislike for Mary Margaret.

"Yup. It's gonna be so fun."

"Oh yeah? What does Regina think of this?"

"She's as excited as I am."

Clearly, Emma did not notice the stiff way Regina was holding herself.

"I'm sure she is."

Regina rolled her eyes at Granny's back as the old woman turned away. She was silently mocking her misfortune, Regina was sure of it.

"What're you doin for Thanksgiving, Ruby?" Emma asked as Ruby came by with their drink orders: hot chocolate with cinnamon for Emma and coffee for Regina.

"Oh, probably just going to hang out with Granny. Maybe keep the diner open if anyone wants to eat here."

"Or," Emma began. "you could come eat with us."

Ruby looked at Regina and then back at Emma. "Um…" She hesitated.

 _Good Lord._  Was Emma hell bent on inviting the whole town? Spending Thanksgiving with a she-wolf and her old grandmother did not sound pleasant.

But then again...they would serve as a nice buffer between her, Mary Margaret, and Gold. And Regina didn't hate them quite as much as she hated the others.

"You know what?" Regina interrupted. "Why not?"

"A-are you sure?"

"Yes." She shot Ruby an arctic smile. "What's two more people? Emma already invited so many people that two more wouldn't make a difference. I mean," Regina gestured blithely in the other direction. "while you're at it we might as well invite Leroy."

Maybe he'd get drunk and serve as an excuse to end the inevitably horrible night early.

"I heard that, sister." Leroy responded from his spot towards the back of the diner. "And that sounds good to me."

"All right, then." Ruby spoke up. "I'll have to ask Granny but I'm sure she'd be fine with it."

"Great." Regina flopped back in her seat and took a long drink of her coffee. "You're all invited then. But no more people, Emma. Got it?"

Emma nodded, smiling widely as she did so. "Okay. I can't wait till Thanksgiving. See you all then!"

Regina echoed Emma's words, though her tone was dry and lifeless. What had she just gotten herself into?


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Regina honestly didn't understand why having mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving was so damn important.

More importantly, she didn't understand how she could've screwed up such a simple dish. She'd made this for dinner sometime a couple weeks ago and pulled it off perfectly. In fact, she could make mashed potatoes in her sleep, with one hand tied behind her back. So  _how_ in the hell had she managed to burn them today?

Probably because today was what she had dubbed "The Thanksgiving from Hell". Why had she agreed to this? Oh right, because she couldn't say no to Emma. Well, why was she so nice?

She sighed impatiently as she dumped the entire contents of the pan into the sink and reached for fresh potatoes in the bag sitting on the floor. Mashed potatoes weren't even that big of a deal; certainly not the most important Thanksgiving side dish. She was sure that everyone could do without them. But that wasn't the point. There was no way anything she prepared for tonight would be anything less than perfect. She had an image to uphold, after all.

Besides, she was only responsible for this, pumpkin pie, and the cranberry sauce, all of which were easy enough to pull off. The latter two were ready to go, sitting in covered dishes on the kitchen island.

Emma chose that moment to burst into the kitchen. "Eww, what's that smell?"

"Nothing. Just a little...screw up. Nothing I can't fix."

"Oh ok. Well anything I can help with?"

"No, dear. Just run along and play."

Emma just stood there, rooted to the spot. "Are you sure?"

"Very."

"But I wanna help."

Regina gritted her teeth. "Fine. Go set the table then."

"I already did though. Member, you told me to earlier."

"Um...go make some placecards for everyone." Regina improvised.

"Ok." Emma immediately set off for the drawer where they kept the art supplies.

 _Whew, that should keep her occupied for a while._ Regina thought as she threw a side glance in Emma's direction. The little girl sat at the kitchen table, legs swinging as she hummed happily to herself, a pink marker scribbling on a piece of paper.

Regina turned back to the potatoes in her hand, and soon enough she could feel herself calming down as her attention focused on the task before her. But of course that was when the doorbell chose to ring.

And just like that her bad mood was back. Because whoever was on the other side of the wooden door would be someone she did not want to let into her house.

"Emma, would you go get that please?"

"Sure." Emma bounded off towards the door as Regina held her breath and prayed that it was Leroy. Out of everyone he was the one she was dreading the least, and that was saying a lot because he annoyed the hell out of her.

Emma was back moments later with...Mary Margaret, much to Regina's dismay.

"Look who's here!" Emma announced unnecessarily.

Regina just eyed Mary Margaret with a mixture of disdain and sarcasm. The schoolteacher wore one of her usual lame skirt and sweater sets, bringing a small smile to cross Regina's face. At least  _she_ looked good in her casual business attire.

"Hello, Regina." Mary Margaret said politely. She held covered dishes in her hand, which Regina knew to be the sweet potatoes and green beans. Earlier that week every dreaded person coming had called her to figure out what they should bring for dinner. Granny and Ruby were bringing turkey and stuffing, Mary Margaret the sweet potatoes and green beans, Gold bringing rolls and ice cream, and Leroy the drinks.

"Mary Margaret." Regina replied coolly.

"Where do you want these?" The teacher gestured to the dishes.

Regina gestured blithely at the kitchen island, where the other dishes sat, before turning back to her mashed potatoes.

"Ms. Blanchard, look at what I'm doing." Emma said as she took the teacher by the hand and led her to the table. "I'm making place cards."

"Oh, how lovely."

Gag. Barf. Regina gripped the sides of the counter so hard her knuckles turned white. She could already feel the muscles in her back tightening and the nauseating sweetness of Mary Margaret's demeanor was so sickening she was going to be sick.

The doorbell rang again a few moments later, revealing Gold, instantly recognizable by the thump of his cane on her floor as Emma led him into the kitchen.

"Mr. Gold's here." Emma said.

"Hello, dearie." He smirked at Regina as if he knew just how uncomfortable she was. "I bring rolls, as we previously agreed on."

Regina shot him a terse smile. "Yes, well you can put those along with the others and Emma will show you where the freezer is."

"All right." Gold said as he followed Emma. "I must say, I have been looking forward to this dinner."

 _Why?_ Regina thought in her head.  _Because some sick part of you likes to see me suffer?_

"Really now? And why's that?"

Gold just smiled slowly. "Because there is nothing better than a dinner with some of your closest friends, of course."

Bull. Shit. He was finding all of this funny, of course. And that made Regina hate him even more. She envisioned herself taking something heavy, maybe the cutting board she kept under the sink or something, and bashing him upside the head with it. Watching with a sick satisfaction as he'd crumple to the floor. That made her feel only marginally better.

The doorbell rang once more, and again Emma ran to get it, this time bringing back Leroy, who held a tote bag that, by the looks of it, was filled to the brim with bottles.

"Glad you could make it." She said tonelessly as she took the heavy bag from him. Regina wasn't surprised to find that it was mostly filled with alcohol, seeing as he was the town drunk. In fact it looked like he'd already had a drink or three.

While Mary Margaret helped Emma with the place cards, Gold watched with an odd little grin on his face. When he caught Regina staring with barely disguised hatred at the pair, he just grinned wider. What an odd little man. He obviously thought he was a big shot because she'd created the curse so that he supposedly owned the town. Well, guess again, since Regina was the only one who had her memories. No matter how much power Gold thought he had, he'd never have as much as Regina.

Granny and Ruby were the last to arrive, rushing breathlessly through the door with the turkey that was large it took both of them to lift.

 _About time._ Regina thought. The sooner they got this meal started the sooner it'd be over with. Graham had said he'd come too, just that he'd be late due to the fact that he had to patrol since people tended to go crazy on Thanksgiving.

The mashed potatoes were nearly done, and Regina leaned against the counter to wait for them. She supposed that she could've joined everyone else out in the living room to wait, where they were sitting, waiting for the food to be ready, but well she'd rather pull out her toenails and eat them. So she'd excused herself and slipped into the kitchen for a few precious moments of peace.

She heard footsteps behind her, and turned around to find Leroy, who clutched an empty glass that Regina swore had been full of liquid about ten minutes ago.

Regina raised an eyebrow at him. "Another?"

He just shrugged and reached for one of the bottles sitting on the counter. "What's it to ya?"

"Are you trying to drink yourself into oblivion or something? Because it's clearly working." She snorted derisively.

"Maybe you should try. At the very least it'd get that stick out from your ass." He countered.

Regina scoffed. "Did you just call me uptight?"

"Hey, if the stick fits."

"That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Blame the brandy."

"Well," Regina slumped against the counter. "it's not like you can blame me for being uptight." At the sound of Mary Margaret's annoyingly tinkly laugh, she balled her fists and dug her nails into her palms. "What I wouldn't give to go back in time and un-invite everyone."

"Hey, why do you think I brought so many supplies?"

"Because you're the town drunk?"

He raised his glass as if to say "good point". "And also because I can stand them just as much as you can."

"But I thought you and Mary Margaret were friends."

Leroy fixed her with a strange look. "What gave you that idea, sister? She's too optimistic and perky."

 _Oops._ Regina had momentarily forgotten that it was  _Grumpy_ and  _Snow White_ who were friends, not Leroy and Mary Margaret. "You're right about that. Ugh. Can't stand her. And then there's Gold. Just sitting there with that smug little look on his face, acting like we're all his little pawns in his big game and that he holds so much power over us. So irritating."

"Don't forget about Ruby and Granny." Leroy supplied. "They can't stop arguing long enough to take a breath."

As if on cue, Regina could hear the living room erupt with voices.

"No, you cannot go out to the Rabbit Hole after dinner tonight." Granny snapped. "I'll need your help at the diner tomorrow morning and the last thing anyone needs is for you to be hungover."

"But Granny," Ruby whined. "it'll be Black Friday. Hardly anybody will be there."

"And that's where you're wrong. Specifically since it's Black Friday means that people will need to eat. So you're working tomorrow. Case closed."

"But…"

"What's so important about going out anyway? You need to learn to be more responsible, Ruby."

"I  _am_ responsible."

"Oh no you're not. Look at the way you're dressed, for starters. When I put over easy on the menu I was talking about the eggs, not you."

"What does  _that_ have to do with anything?"

Regina snuck a look out at the living room. Ruby and Granny were sitting together on the couch, but they were twisted around so that their backs faced each other. It was a pretty comical sight. Gold was perched on an armchair, watching everything with an amused little smirk as usual, while Emma and Mary Margaret attempted to play some sort of board game while subsequently trying to tune out the argument.

"You know, you were smart to bring all this." Regina gestured to the large number of bottles taking up residence on her counter. "Because I don't know how I'm going to get through this night."

Leroy grinned wickedly. "I have an idea."

"Shoot."

"What if we...play a little game?"

Regina frowned. "What kind of game?"

"Every time Ruby and Granny break out into an argument, shot. Every time Gold acts like he knows something we don't, shot." Leroy began.

Regina nodded. She was starting to get the hang of it. "Every time Mary Margaret makes a disgustingly sweet comment, shot."

The rules got sillier and sillier.

"Every time Gold acts like a jerk, shot."

"Every time Granny makes a comment about Ruby's outfits, shot."

"All right, those are the rules." Leroy pushed a glass across the counter to Regina, who picked it up and clinked hers against his.

 _What the hell._ Regina thought as she tipped back the contents of her glass. This wasn't a half bad way to survive the evening. It occurred to her that this was the first time she'd had a semi normal conversation with Leroy. Strange circumstances called for even stranger actions.

 


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Regina could honestly say that she'd never imagined that she'd be spending Thanksgiving with Mary Margaret, Granny, Ruby, Gold, and Leroy of all people, seated around her dining room table, all looking vaguely uncomfortable.

All except for Emma, of course, as she swung her legs excitedly, gaze fixed on the gigantic turkey that sat in the center of the table.

When Emma had first set the place cards on the table, she'd seated herself between Regina and Granny, leaving Mary Margaret on Regina's other side. Well, that simply wouldn't do, so when no one was looking, quick as a whip Regina switched the cards so that she now sat across the table from the schoolteacher. Of course, now she was seated next to Gold, with Leroy on her other side, but that was better than sitting by Mary Margaret.

As Regina sank into her seat, straightening the platter of green beans in front of her, she could feel everyone watching her expectantly.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" She couldn't help the dripping sarcasm that inevitably creeped into her words. "Dig in."

There was a soft snicker to her right. "Of course, your Majesty." Gold's unmistakable accented voice murmured.

Regina whipped around to face him. For a moment, her blood ran cold. He didn't have his memories back...did he? " _What_ was that?"

"I said, of course Madam Mayor." He fixed her with a look that was one parts amused, two parts bemused.

"Uh huh." Regina said dryly, tightly gripping the stem of her wineglass before taking a large gulp. "Sure you did."

A voice spoke up from across the table. "Regina?"

Regina looked up to see Emma looking expectantly at her. "Yes?"

It was clear by the look on the little girl's face that she'd been trying to get Regina's attention for a while. "I said, do you want some 'tatoes?"

"Sure." Regina accepted the dish from Emma and smiled warmly at her. "Thanks, sweetheart."

"Would you like some rolls as well?" Mary Margaret offered.

Just turning her head to look at the schoolteacher's annoyingly hopeful voice was enough to cause Regina's blood pressure to spike. "No thanks."

"Are you sure? They're really good. Gold, you brought them right?" She smiled sweetly at the older man. "You did a really great job on them." She practically gushed to Gold, who just stared back stone faced at her.

What was with this woman and her eager beaver act? Regina gritted her teeth and hoped she'd have the strength to stay calm. "I said I didn't want any."

"But…"

"God." Regina snapped. "Do you seriously not know what 'no' means? And you call yourself a teacher." She sneered. A moment later she snuck a look at Emma to see if the girl had heard (the last thing she wanted was to scare Emma or to ruin her Thanksgiving, no matter how much she hated all her guests), but Emma was deep in conversation with Ruby.

Regina felt a sick satisfaction at the way Mary Margaret's face fell. "Oh. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you."

One of the benefits of the curse was that she'd get to see the once fearsome Snow White become a meek, subservient version of herself. And Regina never got sick of it.

"You should be." She sniffed, before reaching for the green beans and spooning herself some. There was a nudge to her side, and Regina looked over to see Leroy pouring her a shot and pushing it towards her plate.

She stared questioningly at him. "What's this for?"

"You remember the rules." He lowered his voice. "Every time Mary Margaret is disgustingly sweet, shot."

"Right." Regina promptly tipped her head back, face twisting at the taste.

Conversation began to flow around the table. Granny talked about a crazy, sleep deprived Black Friday shopper that had wandered into the diner last year and promptly fallen asleep on top of the counter, not waking up despite everyone's attempts, and how much she hoped that didn't happen this year. Ruby would chime in every so often with comments about how she'd dumped ice water on his head to no avail, and Mary Margaret saying something about how she'd never go Black Friday shopping just to avoid those crazed people. Emma's giggle filled the room, and for the first time that day Regina began to relax, even allowing herself to laugh. Maybe it was just the alcohol talking, but this wasn't too bad, right?

She was beginning to think that she could get through the night when suddenly, the voices rose in pitch, their tones growing sharper.

"Pass the turkey." Ruby said, waving her hand towards the platter in the center of the table.

"Haven't you had enough already?" Granny commented as Gold reached out to push the turkey towards Ruby.

"Looks like someone has an appetite like a wolf." He smirked. "Why am I not surprised?"

 _Shot._ Regina thought as she lifted up the bottle that sat between her and Leroy's plates. They simultaneously tipped their heads back, keeping their eyes on Ruby and Granny.

Ruby rolled her eyes at Granny. "Um, in case you haven't noticed, it's Thanksgiving. I'm allowed to eat however much I want."

"Save some for everybody else." Granny argued.

"I'll take some turkey too." Mary Margaret said loudly in a rather blatant attempt at diminishing the brewing conflict.

"I  _know_ , Granny," There was a hint of annoyance in Ruby's voice as she handed Mary Margaret the turkey. "I'm not stupid."

"I'm not saying you're stupid, Ruby. It's just that you tend to be…" Granny trailed off. "Never mind."

Ruby glanced up, glaring at Granny. "What? I tend to be what?"

And yet another shot. She pushed one towards Leroy and then took what had to be her fourth or fifth of the night. If this continued, she'd be in trouble tomorrow. Regina could hold her liquor fairly well but not the amount this night would definitely result in.

Granny shook her head. "Nothing, just forget it."

"No! Just say it! What? I tend to be a smartass and an idiot?!"

"Ruby! Watch your language!"

And time for another shot. If it wasn't for the alcohol, Regina was sure that she would've had a massive migraine by now. Inviting the perpetually at war Ruby and Granny was a huge mistake.

She glanced over at Emma, who was watching the pair with wide, frightened eyes. She'd rested her fork down and looked like she wanted to run and hide upstairs.

"Hey!" Regina barked, slamming her fork down. "Stop it, both of you. Now!"

"That's right," A voice from across the table added. "We're all here to enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving and it's no place to argue."

Regina groaned; it had been Mary Margaret who'd spoken. Of course. The little brat always had to stick her nose in other people's business.

"I didn't need your help." Regina glared at Mary Margaret. She had a few choice words lined up but didn't dare say them in front of Emma.

The teacher immediately colored. "I was just trying to help."

"Well, next time don't. I can handle it." As she looked away from Mary Margaret, she caught a glimpse of Gold, who was watching them with a smirk. "What?" She snapped. "You think this is funny or something? Nice of you to try and stop the argument."

He just shrugged before spearing a piece of sweet potato. "I knew it'd stop on it's own."

And yet another shot, since Leroy thought this qualified as Gold acting like a dick. Or maybe he was just trying to get drunk.

The room was silent for the next few minutes, save for the sounds of silverware clinking on plates.

"Hey!" Gold barked. "You got turkey fat all over the salad."

Regina looked up to see Gold staring fiercely at Leroy.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Leroy asked.

Much to Regina's bemusement, Gold was practically seething. "Look." He thrust the dish underneath Leroy's nose. "You got turkey in the salad."

"You're crazy." Leroy argued. "I did no such thing."

In response, Gold lifted up a piece of lettuce and began waving it in the air, making a big show of a tiny brown spot that Regina had to squint to see. "Do you see this?"

"No."

"Well, it's there. You must have mixed up the serving spoons. How hard is it to keep them separate? I know in that tiny little dwarf brain of yours things like that must be difficult but at least try for the rest of us."

"You need to relax, man. Here," Leroy shoved the nearly empty bottle of jager towards Gold. "Have a drink. No need to get your panties in a twist."

"I don't want a drink!" Gold snapped, pushing the bottle back at Leroy. It tipped dangerously, the liquid nearly sloshing all over the white tablecloth before coming to a rest.

"All right, all right." Leroy raised his hands in surrender. "Jeez."

"Maybe if you weren't drunk all the time you'd be more careful."

"Hey!" Leroy stood up and loomed threateningly over Gold. "Mind your own business."

"Oh, but it's true, isn't it?" Gold taunted. For some reason he was still waving the piece of lettuce in the air. "You're so drunk you can barely see three feet in front of you. And look, now you're ruined the salad."

In between them, Regina took shot after shot, since she was sure this qualified as Gold being a dick. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she should probably stop the argument.

"NO I DIDN'T!" Leroy boomed. "There's nothing on the damn salad! Here, have some rolls and choke on them. Not gonna offer you no turkey, nooooo, since you probably think that there's salad all over it."

"All right, all right!" Mary Margaret stood up and rushed around the table towards Gold. She grabbed the lettuce leaf out of his hand and began scrubbing furiously at it with a napkin.

Gold blinked at her. "WHAT are you doing?"

Around the table, Regina, Granny, and Ruby were staring open mouthed at the spectacle, while Emma giggled at the ridiculous sight.

Mary Margaret blushed. "Trying to help you clean it off. There, see? It's all better. No more turkey fact. Now you two kids can stop fighting."

"We're not your students!" Gold and Leroy burst out simultaneously. They stared at each other for a split second before turning their gazes away.

"All the dressing's gone now." Gold complained, swinging the lettuce leaf back and forth in the air.

"Oh, oh, I got it." Mary Margaret raced to the fridge and came back with the squeeze bottle of dressing, squirting it all over the leaf. The dressing ran down his hand, and Gold blinked down in distaste.

"That's too much."

"Oh, just sit down Mary Margaret." Regina said. "Nobody wants your help."

"Well, I don't want this anymore." Gold, disgusted, whipped the now turkey free lettuce leaf away. "It still reeks of turkey."

"Give it a rest." Leroy countered. He lifted up the bottle as if about to throw it at Gold's head, and Gold grabbed his cane. "Don't be such a sissy."

"Shut up!" Granny said. "Both of you, shut up."

"Yeah, Gold." Regina butted in, borderline slurring her words. "Don't be such a shit starter. And Leroy put the bottle back down."

The doorbell rang just then.

Regina pushed herself up unsteadily on her feet. "I'm going to get the door and when I get back all of you better be quiet." The room seemed to spin before her, and she wondered briefly if all those shots had been a good idea.

"Graham!" She cried as the door swung open to reveal the sheriff, who held a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a grocery bag in the other.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." He leaned over to kiss Regina on the cheek, but she threw her arms around his neck.

"It's ok." She breathed. "I'm glad you're here." She pressed her nose to his neck and sniffed loudly. "Mmm. You smell so good. Have I ever told you how good you smell?"

Graham chuckled lightly. "Are you drunk, Regina?"

"Nooooo." Regina replied. "Just really happy to see you."

"Oookay." Graham responded as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. "I should probably get this into the freezer before it melts."

"Yes, you should." Regina led him into the kitchen, and as he walked past the dining room everybody stared curiously at him.

"Graham! You're here!" Emma ran up and hugged him around his legs. "Just in time cuz the turkey's almost gone but don't worry we have some left and green beans too you can have mine I don't like them ohhh you brought ice cream?"

"Yep." He took a carton out of the grocery bag and held it up. "I wasn't sure what to bring and I remembered that you liked cookie dough."

"I already brought ice cream." Came Gold's voice, which had gone tight and steely.

"Oh, it's ok though!" Mary Margaret raced up and opened the freezer, bringing out the carton Gold had placed in there earlier. "You brought chocolate and Graham brought cookie dough. See? They're completely different."

"Whatever." Gold responded.

"Sit down Mary Margaret." Regina said. "Quit trying to butt in."

The schoolteacher did as told, and out of the corner of her eye Regina could see Leroy pouring her a shot before taking one himself.

Graham settled down into the seat that Regina had placed between herself and Gold, and he began filling his plate.

"I'd steer clear of the salad, if I were you." Gold said as Graham's hand hovered over the salad plate. "Leroy got turkey all over it."

"For the last time," Leroy snapped. "I did no such thing!"

"Uhh, ok." Graham stammered. He looked at Regina, who just rolled her eyes and poured herself another shot. "I'll just take a little. Looks fine to me."

"Ha!" Leroy laughed. "Told ya."

Gold rolled his eyes.

Food was finished, plates pushed back as Regina went up to bring over the pumpkin pie and two cartons of ice cream.

"Who wants which flavor?"

"I want both!" Emma declared.

"Same here." Leroy responded.

"Me too." Ruby decided, and Granny nodded in agreement.

"Just chocolate for me, thanks." Gold said.

"Don't be so stubborn, Gold." Leroy taunted. "What, are you still mad that Graham brought ice cream as well? You don't feel special anymore?"

"No. I just like chocolate."

"Sure, sure, whatever you say."

"Why don't you mind your own…"

"Here's your pie." Graham hastily shoved a plateful of pie and chocolate ice cream at Gold.

"Thanks." Gold said without taking his eyes off Leroy, who was staring at him with a thoroughly disgruntled expression.

"Emma, slow down on the pie." Regina said. Half of her pie was gone and ice cream was smeared all over her face as she shoveled the dessert into her mouth.

"It'sssss soooo good."

"It is." Ruby agreed.

"Almost as good as mine." Granny added.

"I propose a toast." Graham stood up, stumbling sideways slightly before steadying himself with a hand on the table. "To the best pie ever."

"Hear, hear." Ruby raised her glass and Granny followed suit. Emma jumped to her feet, holding up her cup of apple juice, and Regina did so as well with her glass of wine. Gold followed, but the expression on his face indicated that he'd rather choke on the pie rather than toast to it.

"Also…" Emma said. "To the new playground that they're gonna build after Christmas."

"Hear, hear!"

They continued making toasts, each one sillier than the last.

"To this beautiful, beautiful cup."

"To not having to go to work for three more days!"

Even Gold made one. "To hopefully someday having salad that won't be contaminated by turkey."

Regina was laughing so hard tears were running down her cheeks. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably as she wracked her mind for funnier toasts that would top the ones the others were making. A quick look around the table told her that everybody looked the same.

"To Black Friday shopping!"

"To the very yummy turkey."

"To all of the food currently sitting in my stomach."

"To the way the light is shining on the plate, in the prettiest way that makes it look like a rainbow."

And finally, "To the best Thanksgiving ever!" A very drunk Leroy thrust the arm that was holding his glass straight up into the air.

Before Regina knew what was happening, Leroy's glass smashed against the chandelier. There was a loud tinkling sound, and broken glass rained down around them, followed by the gushing of wine, splashing onto the remaining pie.

The red wine seeped into the once perfect white tablecloth and the pie was swimming in the puddle of liquid, as everyone took one look at the spectacle and the laughs in the room rose in pitch, growing louder and louder.

Except for Regina. She didn't think there was anything funny about it. "Leroy!"

"Oops." He slurred.

"I'm going to kill you." Regina reached out, but Leroy shot sideways in a surprisingly graceful move given how drunk he was and dashed into the kitchen, snickering the whole way.

"Come back here and clean it up!" Regina started off towards Leroy, running unsteadily after him in her stilettos. "That was my best tablecloth!"

"Regina, I'll clean it up." Mary Margaret called.

"Stay out of it!"

The power chose that moment to go out, the refrigerator's hum abruptly stopping, the lights flickering off, leaving everybody in the pitch black room. Regina stopped mid-chase.

"Best Thanksgiving ever," Gold muttered. "hear, hear."

 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Gold, what did you do?" Someone muttered. It sounded like Granny.

Everyone sat around in the pitch black dining room, seemingly rooted to their seats while Regina and Graham searched for flashlights and candles in the kitchen drawers. The once drunk party had suddenly become sober.

"I was here with the rest of you," Gold responded. "so don't look at me, dearie."

"We can't." Leroy responded. "In case you haven't noticed, it's dark in here. I can barely see a thing."

Someone, most likely Emma, burst out laughing.

"How's it going in the kitchen?" Ruby called. "Find any candles yet?"

"Yeah." Leroy added. "I think Emma's getting scared."

"I am not!" Emma said. "I'm not a baby." It sounded as though she was sticking her tongue out, though of course nobody could see it.

"It's kind of hard to look when it's dark." Regina huffed, but moments later there was the scratching of a match and then she walked out, holding a tall candle. Graham was close behind, candles in each hand.

"Why did the lights go out?" Emma asked.

Graham scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure, I think we just blew a fuse."

"Oh. What's that?"

"Kind of hard to explain."

"Well," Mary Margaret began. "you know that the lights are powered by electricity so-" She was rudely cut off by Regina.

"The fuse box is in the garage. Who wants to go look at it and fix this?"

"I will." Graham volunteered.

Regina smiled gratefully at him. "Anyone else?"

"Here, take Leroy." Gold spoke up. "He can help hold the flashlight."

Leroy glared at Gold. "Why me? Why not you?"

"Because," Gold began. "I'm not the one who got turkey in the salad."

"Still on about that, I see." Leroy grumbled as he followed Graham into the garage. "You're more immature than Emma."

"Hey, I heard that!"

"Well," Granny said. "we might as well clean up. Early day tomorrow and all."

Working by the flickering candlelight, everyone worked to stack the dishes and bring them into the kitchen.

"Make sure you don't break my plates." Regina snapped to Mary Margaret. She just couldn't help getting in jabs whenever she could. "They cost more than your apartment."

"Yikes." Ruby squinted at the table. "There's glass everywhere."

"That's going to be hard to clean up without light." Mary Margaret said worriedly.

For the first couple minutes, they transported plates to the kitchen without too much arguing, though Regina did make a comment about the decorative birds on Mary Margaret's plates (her exact words were "do you own any plates without any birds on them? they are so sweet they make me sick").

But then Ruby stopped suddenly, a handful of silverware curled in her palms. "Do you guys hear that?"

"Hear what, girl?" Granny snapped. "Are you trying to get out of working again?"

"No, Granny. Listen, there's a weird noise coming from the garage."

"Oh, and I suppose that when you stop to flirt with the customers you're just 'trying to make them feel welcome'?"

"Yes, because that's exactly what you say we should do."

"Hey, who wants to play a game?" Emma interrupted.

"I don't know…" Regina started. "I'm sure everyone's tired. And it's already past your bedtime, Emma."

But they didn't seem to hear her.

"That's a good idea." Mary Margaret responded. "I think after everything everyone's had to drink we should all take a break before driving home."

Regina shot her a scathing glare.

"Sure, a game sounds fun." Ruby agreed. "What shall we play?"

"How about headbands?" Emma offered. "Regina and I play it all the time."

"Headbands?"

"Yeah, it's real fun, isn't it Regina?"

Regina forced a grin. "Um, yeah, I guess it's fun."

Ten minutes later, they were seated in the middle of the living room. It seemed they were all part of a kindergarten class getting ready for story time.

"Now, lets pick teams!" Emma said cheerfully. "I want to be with Ms. Blanchard and Regina."

Regina rolled her eyes.  _Great._

 _"_ I'd love to be on your team." Mary Margaret smiled.

 _"_ Ok, and Graham, Mr. Gold and Leroy on another."

 _"_ And Granny and Ruby can take their pick." Emma added.

In the end, Ruby had chosen the guy's team, and Granny had gone with Emma.

"Ok, me first. I'll go against." Emma tapped her chin as she looked at the people in front of her.

"Ruby." She finally decided.

"Alright." She smiled. "But how exactly does this game work?"

"Here, put this on your head." She handed her the headband.

Emma took one of the many cards and placed in on it. She then took another one and placed it on herself.

"Ok, now you have to ask questions, and try to guess the card on your head. It could be a fruit, animal, anything. Only yes or no questions though." Emma added.

"Ok. I think I get it. Would you like to go first Emma?"

Emma nodded. "Am I am animal?" She asked.

Ruby shook her head.

"Can you eat me?"

"Yes."

"Am I a hamburger?"

"Not quite."

"Am I a hotdog?"

Ruby smiled as she nodded.

"Yay!" Emma squealed. "One point for us."

Regina marked a tally mark on the paper in front of her.

"Your turn Ruby!"

It started to go downhill from there, though.

"Regina your turn!" Emma stated.

Regina sighed and rolled her eyes internally.

"Ok." She grabbed a card and placed it on her forehead.

"Mr. Gold, you too."

As if it couldn't get worse.

"Alright."

"Regina, you can start guessing now."

"Am I living?" She asked.

The answer to this would narrow down her results immensely.

"Yes."

"Am I a four legged animal?"

"Yes?"

"Can I be kept as a pet?"

"Yup."

"Am I a cat?"

Gold sighed. "Yes."

Regina smirked. "Another point for us."

Emma smiled. "Ok Mr Gold. Your turn."

"Let's get this over with. Am I an animal?"

"Nope."

"Am I an object?"

She shook her head.

"Am I a fruit?"

"No."

"What about a vegetable?"

"Yes."

It seemed like hours that Gold spent naming all the vegetables known to man. And to each and every one of them, she'd simply shake her head 'No'.

Gold was about to shake her head off her body completely, if this stupid little round didn't end soon. "I've literally names every single vegetable known, to exist." He announced angrily.

"Gold, I knew you aren't very bright, but to not name one of the most common vegetables, that's just sad."

"I can't think of anymore. I give up."

He sighed, yanking the band off his head.

"A tomato?" He yelled, his face almost turning into the same shade of red of the tomato.

"Yeah, don't worry, we all knew you were an idiot. Don't feel bad."

"I'm the idiot?" He asked.

She nodded.

''That's where you're wrong, dearie, because in case you didn't know, a tomato is a  _fruit,_ not a vegetable."

The smirk on Regina's face fell.

"Who's the idiot now?"

And just like the argument, many more followed. Who knew that a simple game of headbands would cause all this arguing?

An hour later, the girls were in the lead 25 to 15.

"Ok, Graham. My turn to guess." Mary Margaret stated.

He nodded.

"Am I a reptile?"

"Nope."

"Am I an insect?"

He shook his head.

"Am I some sort of furniture?"

"Nope."

"Can you eat me?"

"Yes."

"Oh good." She said cheerfully.

She listed off a long list of foods, along with desserts, and pretty much anything that could be consumed.

"I give up." She sighed. "What am I?"

"You're a cow, which in fact, you  _can_  eat. In many different ways." He smirked.

You could almost see the smoke coming out of the girls' ears.

"That wasn't funny." Regina argued.

"We had to get payback in a way." Leroy stated.

"You broke the rules." Emma argued.

"No we didn't. You can eat a cow, in a burger, in meatballs, you name it."

"But it wasn't fair." Emma argued back.

"Sorry, Kiddo."

"Leave them, Emma. Don't worry, we're still winning, we'll score the next point. But it seems like  _Graham_  won't be scoring  _anything_  for some time." She locked eyes with Graham, and smirked as she watched his own smirk slowly disappear.

"Oooh, burn!" Cried Ruby.

Graham cleared his throat as broke his gaze from Regina's, his face uncharacteristically pink. "How about we just give you this point, and we call it a night?" He suggested. "It's getting late."

"No. You can't just give them the point." Gold and Leroy argued.

"Keep your point." Granny said. "We won anyways. But Graham's right, it's getting late."

A second later the lights came flooding back on.

"Just in time." Leroy said sarcastically.

Coats were collected, leftovers spread all around, and pretty soon everyone was clustered around the door, ready to leave. Gold looked like he couldn't get out of there fast enough as he said goodbye hastily over his shoulder and quickly walked towards his car. Seconds later his car was heard zooming down the street and away.

"Thanks for a lovely evening." Granny said as she and Ruby hugged Emma goodbye. Leroy followed behind them, as he was a little too drunk to drive himself home.

"Bye!" Emma waved as she watched the cars drive away.

"I should be going too," Graham said. "early day patrolling all of the Black Friday sales tomorrow." He tried to give Regina a good night kiss, but she shoved him out of the way.

He shot her a fake wounded puppy expression. "Are you still mad about the game?"

"Maybe." Regina replied. "Try again tomorrow."

"I'm still invited for dinner?" He asked hopefully.

"Maybe," she repeated. "if you're good." And then she shoved him out the door. "Good night, sheriff."

Regina turned back to Emma, who was struggling to hold back a yawn. "Time for bed, dear."

Emma didn't protest as she allowed Regina to lead her upstairs and into the bathroom. It was already three whole hours after her bedtime, and she clearly wasn't used to staying up that late.

"I"m sorry about all of the arguing." Regina said as she slid the ribbons that held together the rather magnificent array of braids in the little girl's hair.

"Are you kidding?" Emma grinned. "This was the best Thanksgiving ever." Her next words caused Regina to groan loudly. "We should do it again next year!"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Emma." Regina flicked on the bedside lamp and sat down on the corner of the bed. "Time to wake up."

Emma opened one eye and fixed Regina with a snarky look, a look that Regina recognized as one she gave Mary Margaret on more than one occasion. "No."

"Yes. Don't you want to go Black Friday shopping?"

"It's still dark out." Emma whined, shielding her eyes against the bright light by flipping the blanket up and over her face. "Good night."

"But what about new clothes? And toys? I know some of those video games you've been wanting are on sale today."

Emma was silent for a long moment, considering all of this. "Five more minutes." She said finally.

"Of course." Regina made to move off the bed and out of the room but a little hand on her arm stopped her.

"Will there be apple pancakes?"

"What do you think?"

With a little grin, Emma snuggled back under the covers.

"Five minutes." Regina exited the room, purposely leaving the light on. If she turned it off Emma would sleep until the next morning.

Back in the kitchen, Regina poured some premade batter (she'd anticipated this little snaggle and had thought to make the pancake batter last night after Emma had gone to bed, knowing full well that the only way to get the little girl out of bed was with this particular bribe) onto the griddle.

 _If it's this hard to get Emma out of bed now, what's it going to be like when she's a teenager?_ And then she froze. When Emma was a teenager?  _Would_ Emma even stay with her that long? Regina honestly didn't know how long foster kids stayed in their foster homes before moving on.

Did she even want Emma to stay that long? It'd only been about a month or so, but she was already attached to the little girl. But to actually keep her, raise her, adopt her? Was that something that was feasible?

And there was the little matter of the question over whether or not Emma would age if she stayed in Storybrooke long term. She wasn't part of the curse, just a random kid, so most likely she'd age like a normal person.  _But_ maybe the parameters of the curse would affect everyone who called Storybrooke home?

Ugh, this was so confusing it was giving her a headache.

The sound of feet stomping down the staircase jolted her out of her thoughts. "It's only midnight." Emma complained. "Why do we have to go so early?"

"Because, dear," Regina said as she sat down with a steaming cup of coffee. "that's when the stores open. Some people have been there all night, camping out and waiting."

Emma wrinkled her nose at the prospect of sitting outside in the freezing cold, just waiting for a store to open. "Don't people ever get tired?"

Her question was spoken so frankly, delivered with such a deadpan expression that Regina couldn't help but laugh.

"I don't know." She answered honestly. "That's a great question. Hurry up and eat your pancakes."

* * *

Regina narrowed her eyes as she was elbowed in the ribs. A part of her longed to conjure up her trusty fireballs and let them loose, but seeing as Emma was on her other side, tugging on her coat, she settled for a dirty look to convey that she, of all people, was not one to be messed with.

"Regina, can I get this?"

Regina barely glanced at the package of sparkly lip glosses that Emma held up before replying blithely, "Yes, sure go ahead. You can get whatever you want."

"Really?" Emma beamed.

"Yes." Someone reached in front of her in an attempt to grab the last mango scented lotion on the shelf, their elbow nearly taking out Regina's nose. "Hey!" Regina barked, making a grab for the lotion herself. "Watch it!"

She honestly couldn't care less about the lotion, but, well, it was the principle of it.

"Let go!" The other woman shouted, her voice amidst the general chaos in the store. "I saw it first!"

"I don't think so."

" _Yes_." The woman insisted, tugging on the bottle. But Regina was not one to give up. She tugged back, and pretty soon they were engaged in a full out tug of war. Over a bottle of lotion.

"Let. Go." Regina gritted her teeth. "It's mine."

"Oh, please." The other woman retorted. "You've been standing here, not even bothering to take it, so it's obviously mine."

"Well, I'm the mayor." Regina raised her chin haughtily, daring the woman to say anything else."

"On days like today, that doesn't matter-"

 _Oh, no._  Nobody told Regina that she didn't matter.  _Nobody._ With a death glare, she let go of the lotion, shoving the woman away with a surprising amount of force so that she was toppling uncontrollably, coming to a stop when her back made contact with a rack of perfumes, sending them all crashing to the ground. Like vultures descending atop a dead body, a pack of ladies suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started making grabs for the discounted perfumes. Regina wasted no time in joining in, smiling triumphantly as her fingers closed around one of her favorite scents.

"Thanks." She said with faux-sweetness as she reached for the discarded bottle of lotion that the woman had dropped as she fell and made eye contact with the woman she'd been fighting with. "Mango lotion is one of my favorites."

Lie. But maybe her secretary would like it.

Smoothing out her coat, she realized that Emma was no longer by her side, but across the room, staring at the display of stuffed animals. Regina shoved, elbowed, and kicked her way to the little girl, noting with pleasure that her hair and makeup were still impeccable when she saw her reflection in one of the mirrors for sale. The same could not be said of half of the women in the store.

Emma's arms were filled with stuffed animals; she turned to Regina with what could only be described as the puppy dog look.

Before Emma could even open her mouth to ask, Regina was gesturing to her basket, in an unusually good mood over her victory. Although basket was a bit of an understatement-the store provided large bags for their shoppers' conveniences every Black Friday.

"Yay! Thanks!" She threw her arms around Regina.

"Are you sure your bed has enough room?" She teased.

" _Oh,_ I'll make room." Emma said with a seriousness that was usually reserved for the courtroom.

Just then, someone rammed into Emma from behind in an attempt to reach the rack of discounted makeup brushes, sending her stumbling forward. She would've hit the ground if Regina hadn't reached out to grab her arms.

"Are you alright?"

Emma nodded, and a second later Regina had released her arms and was charging straight toward the rude makeup brush woman. "Hey! What the hell's wrong with you? You almost knocked Emma over!"

Though her back was turned, Emma could see Regina gesturing wildly in all directions, countering the other woman's arguments with likely sarcastic remarks.

"Wow," A voice commented from over Emma's shoulder. "Regina sure looks fired up."

Emma turned to see Mary Margaret. She too held a basket, but unlike everyone else's hers was nearly empty.

"Yeah everyone's been going crazy. I don't get it. It's just lotion and stuff."

"Oh, well you know women and sales. Looks like you've got quite the haul." Mary Margaret gestured to Emma and Regina's overflowing basket of stuffed animals, various lotions, perfume bottles, sweaters, and other random items.

"What about you? You don't have a lot."

"That's because Mary Margaret doesn't know how." Regina said snidely as she approached, looking as though she'd just been in a bar fight. "If you want to actually get some good deals and save some money for presents this year, you'll need to put some muscle into it."

"Oh, no." Mary Margaret looked vaguely horrified. "I could never resort to violence."

Regina shrugged indifferently. "You call it violence, I call it smart shopping."

* * *

_December._

It started with a squeal.

 _Should I get up?_ Regina thought idly to herself. She probably should, but on the other hand her bed was  _so_ warm and  _so_ comfy and she was  _so_ tired, especially after her late night of paperwork at the office. She'd had to drop Emma off at Granny's so that Ruby and Granny could look after her, and it hadn't been until after 10 that she'd been able to leave work. Not to mention the fact that temperatures had been dipping below 0. Regina loved using the cold as an excuse to accessorize with cute hats, gloves, and the like, but, well, there was nothing like her cozy bed.

But... _nah._ Emma didn't sound as though she was in any danger, so back to sleep it was.

Not thirty seconds later, though, loud footsteps thumped on the hardwood floor, heading straight towards...ughh.

"Regina, Regina, Regina!"

The footsteps ceased, there was a moment of silence, and suddenly the bed sagged down on one end.

"Wake up." Emma tapped on the side of her face, her breath warm. "Regina, wake up!"

"Mm." Regina groaned.

"Come onnn." Emma continued, shaking her gently.

"It's too early, Emma. Go back to sleep."

"But the sky's awake, so I'm awake. We  _have_  to play."

"No."

"But it's snowing!" She squealed.

"Emma, we can play later. It's barely six." She mumbled, burying her face further into the pillow.

"But there's so much snow." She let out. "Regina?"

"Regina?" She repeated.

She lowered her lips to her ears. "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

Regina chuckled from underneath the pillow. She let out a long sigh, before sitting up.

"Yay! You're up."

Emma stood up on the bed. "Now come on! Let's go before it all melts."

Regina smiled. "Ok."

Thirty minutes later, all dressed and with full stomachs, the two were heading out the door.

"Don't forget your gloves, Emma."

"I got em."

"Ok, then. Let's go."

As soon as they were outside. Emma's eyes lit up and doubled in size.

"It's beautiful. I've never seen so much snow." Emma squealed.

"It is, isn't it."

Emma smile didn't disappear as she interlocked her hand with Regina's. The walked through Storybrooke, taking in the beautiful sights surrounding them.

"What do you want to do first?" Regina asked.

"Snow angels." She replied immediately.

"Alright."

As soon as they arrived at the park, Emma rushed to the snow covered field, instantly throwing herself on the ground.

Emma's giggles were like music to Regina's ears. Never would she have imagined, that a five year olds laugh would be one of the best sounds she'd ever hear.

It filled her heart knowing that the little girl, who at such a young age had already gone through what most children shouldn't, was now enjoying her life so much.

"Come on, Regina. This is so much fun." Emma's cheerful voice broke her from her thoughts.

She shook her head. "I'm good." Cold, wet snow soaking into her coat? No thanks.

Emma sat up. "Please?" She begged. "Pleeease?"

Her lips formed a pout, as she stared at Regina.

Regina sighed in defeat. How could she say no?

"Ok."

Regina settled beside Emma, and mimicked her previous actions. She had to admit, this all was so fun. She'd forgotten how something so small, could make her so content. As a child, she'd played in the snow several times, mostly when her mother was out for the day, as "it wasn't proper for a young lady to frolick in the snow."

Her father had been the one to take her out, making snow angels and helping her with the  _biggest_ snowman Regina had ever seen.

Still, though, there had been many snow days where Regina had been forced to miss, instead attending her stuffy lessons, watching the white castle grounds outside with a wistful expression.

She felt Emma get up and run off to the playground. Minutes later, she followed, but her heart sunk when she couldn't spot Emma anywhere.

"Emma?" Regina called.

No answer.

"Emma!" Regina panicked.

Suddenly, she felt something hit her back. Hard.

"Snowball fight!" Emma squealed before running off.

Regina smiled as she ran after her. "You're gonna pay for that, missy."

Oh, pay she did. Snowballs were thrown, whirls of white blinding her vision, hitting her everywhere. For someone so tiny, Emma was  _fast_ , throwing three snowballs for every one of Regina's. They ducked behind benches, the slide, and anything else in an attempt to hide from the other. Shrieks were heard, laughs, squeals.

It wasn't until Regina had Emma in a tight grip, a snowball in the other hand, Emma squirming and laughing and wriggling, attempting to get away and stuff the snowball she held into Regina's face when Regina felt Emma shiver, felt how wet her coat was.

"Noooo. Lemme go!"

She'd forgotten that when snow melted, it turned into cold water. Water that could cause a cold, or worse.

Her thoughts had distracted her; in a fluid motion, Emma successfully got Regina to release her hold and stuffed her snowball into her face. "HA!"

Regina smiled as she dusted the snow off her face, blinking against the cold. "Ok, ok, you win."

Emma puffed out her chest with pride. "Of course." Another shiver passed through her. "Do you wanna build a snowman now?"

"Maybe later-I think we better head home now."

"Now? Whyyyy?"

"Because you're freezing."

"Nuh uh." But she shivered again.

"Sure you're not." Regina teased.

"I'm  _not."_ Emma insisted.

"Well, I am then."

"But we haven't made a snowman yet."

"We can come back later." Regina promised. "But for now, I think it's time for some hot chocolate."

At the sound of that Emma perked up. "With whipped cream? And marshmallows?"

"Sure."

Emma's hand was slipped into Regina's hand and they walked home, passing by other families playing in the snow much as they'd been doing.

It hadn't even occurred to Regina that that was what she and Emma were.

A family.

As Regina hung up the coats in the bathtub, she had a fleeting thought that this day had made up for all the snow days she'd had to miss as a child.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone catch the Frozen reference?


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: In honor of the "quiet moments" that David and Killian mentioned to Emma about enjoying between each crisis in her life, this chapter is full of moments. Cute little events that didn't really fit into the overall storyline but are worth sharing.

Chapter 14

"So, since you're going to be starting school tomorrow, I need to know what kind of lunch you'd like."

Emma stared wide eyed at her, her thumb involuntarily making its way to her mouth. "What do you mean?"

"I need to pack you a lunch, so what would you like?"

"You mean," Emma seemed to be choosing her words very carefully. "I can choose what I want?"

"Well, yes. Why wouldn't you?"

Emma hesitated, but she didn't reply. "Ok." She said, her face brightening.

"So what kind of sandwich would you like?"

"Um… smoked turkey on a cheddar soft roll with hard salami and a slice of provolone cut in half and then pickles on top with mustard and-"

"Hang on, hang on." Regina interrupted. "You want what?"

"Turkey on a cheddar soft roll with-"

"Yeah, I got that part. What, did you work part time in a deli or something?"

"No. I had a foster mom who took me to work with her a lot and made me sit behind the counter."

Oh, well that made more sense. "Sorry, dear, but I think we're fresh out of turkey and provolone and...the other things you mentioned. Anything else, preferably something a little less complicated?

The thumb went in and out as as a thoughtful look crossed her face. "I like peanut butter and jelly."

"Now that I can do."

Emma beamed.

"Would you prefer grape jelly or apple?"

"Grape."

"All right."

"Can I have cookies too?"

"Sure. And do you like fruit cups?"

Emma stuck out her tongue. "Yuck."

"What about fruit leather?"

"Double yuck."

"Carrot sticks?"

"No."

"Emma, you have to have something healthy in your lunch."

"Can't I just have two cookies?" She threw Regina a look that was  _so_ endearing that she almost said yes.

"Sorry, no."

"Please?"

"No. And if you don't choose something healthy you're not getting any cookies at all."

"Fine." Emma huffed. "I'll have the fruit leather."

"Good choice. Now onto juice. I have apple-"

"Of course." Emma said dramatically. "Everything in this house has apple." She snuck a look at Regina's bemused expression. "Sorry."

"It's alright. I just like apples a lot." Regina smiled a little to herself. Apples were her little inside joke with herself, and also served as a reminder of the fact that she'd  _won._ "As I was saying, I have apple, orange, and fruit punch."

"Oh, fruit punch for sure. It's the bestest."

" _Best._ " Regina corrected. "And yes, sure you can have that."

A sly smile crept onto Emma's face. "Since I was  _so_ good and chose a juice  _so_ fast, can I have two cookies anyway?"

Regina thought for a moment before answering. "No."

The next day, Emma sat down to lunch with the rest of her class, biting into the sandwich Regina had made. Unlike the sandwiches her previous foster families had made, dry and yucky with soggy bread, usually the bread butts which everyone knew was the worst, Regina's sandwich was thick and fluffy, with lots and lots of jelly, her favorite part.

She traded her fruit leather for a fruit roll up that Jasmine offered. Jasmine actually liked fruit leather. Eww, who liked those?

Jasmine's father had given her an apple, and Emma almost asked if her father was friends with Regina or something. The apple was tossed in the trash in favor of the fruit leather.

A fruit roll up was still fruit, right?

The "healthy" part of her lunch finished, Emma reached into the lunch sack and pulled out the plastic bag at the bottom. Much to her surprise, there was not one, but  _two_ chocolate chip cookies nestled inside.

* * *

Regina stared curiously at Emma as she chewed a mouthful of chicken . There was something different about the blonde, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

 _Same pigtails, same red sweatshirt she'd worn to school that day, same freckles._ But something felt off. What, though?

"Don't forget to eat your peas, dear."

Emma stuck out her tongue at the little green vegetables but shoveled a large forkful into her mouth anyway, opening so wide Regina could see all of her perfect little white teeth.

_Wait. Teeth._

"Emma, did you lose a tooth today?"

Instead of the usual gap where a bottom tooth had been, there were now two gaps, together creating a larger hole in the otherwise perfect row of teeth.

Emma nodded. "Uh huh."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

The little girl shrugged and slapped her fork onto her pile of mashed potatoes, effectively flattening it before sticking some it into her mouth.

"Do you still have the tooth?"

Another nod. "Mrs. Smith gave me a baggie to put it in."

"Good. Don't forget to put it under your pillow tonight."

Emma looked up, a surprised expression crossing her face. "Why?"

"Don't you know about the tooth fairy? I thought all kids did."

"I do but Mrs. Armstrong said bad girls like me didn't get visits from the tooth fairy."

 _Old foster mother._ Regina filled in the blank for herself. "What did you do that was so bad?" She asked, confused.

"Accidentally took two string cheeses instead of one."

She had to control herself to keep from becoming too angry. This innocent little girl was told that she was bad because she wanted a larger snack? That was so wrong it was ridiculous! "Well, I'm afraid she was wrong. You're  _not_ a bad girl and the tooth fairy will be coming tonight."

Emma visibly brightened. "Really?"

"Of course. And Emma, in this house you're welcome to help yourself to anything you'd like."

That night, Regina left $4 under Emma's pillow. $2 for the tooth she'd lost today and $2 for the visit she'd been unfairly deprived of.

* * *

"What kind of homework assignment is this?" Regina glared at the pile of popsicle sticks on the kitchen table as if they'd personally offended her.

"I have to build a birdhouse." Emma explained, handing her foster mother the instruction sheet that her teacher had given her. "We're supposed to have our parents help us." She then reddened. "Or, foster parents I guess."

Regina wanted to strangle kindly old Mrs. Smith for not using the politically correct term: parents and/or guardians.

"You don't hafta if you don't wanna." Emma added, snatching the sheet from Regina's hand.

"I didn't say that. I would  _love_ to help you."

"Really?" Emma smiled, revealing a gap where her tooth had once been.

"Of course, dear. I have nothing better to do this evening anyway." That was a flat out lie. Regina had brought home stacks of paperwork, but she couldn't let Emma do this ridiculously complicated assignment all on her own.

Food was ordered from Granny's to save time ("just this once" Regina had said) and set into the fridge for later. They set off to work, the box of popsicle sticks dumped across the table, a bottle of white glue standing as if guarding the wooden objects.

The project was harder than Regina expected- _much_ harder than what a kindergartner should be doing. The seemingly innocuous looking diagram caused Regina to have to grab her reading glasses and squint, wondering just how in the hell they were supposed to do this.

"Have you ever done anything like this before, Emma?" Regina asked as she attempted to copy the diagrammed roof. This was more of a homework assignment for the parents, she decided, as she was doing most of the work.

"Yeah I had to make a house out of popsicle sticks."

 _What was it about kindergarten and making useless things out of popsicle sticks?_ Regina wondered who'd helped Emma with that project.

Her guess was no one.

Seconds later, she felt the stick she'd been holding snap in half. "Damnit!" She cried before she could stop herself, launching the now useless stick across the table.

Emma flinched. "I'm sorry. Please don't be mad. You don't have to help me I can do it myself."

Regina sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm not mad, Emma. Just frustrated. Tell you what, I think both of us could use a break."

Dinner was consumed and they were back to work. The birdhouse was beginning to come together. Despite the silliness of this whole endeavor, Regina was beginning to enjoy herself.

"All right, what color do you want to paint it?"

They decided on purple and red, for their favorite colors. Paint ended up everywhere; on the table, on their fingertips, even in Emma's hair. Regina was surprised to find that she didn't mind. All she was focused on was painting the damn thing perfectly. She'd put in so much effort that she'd be damned if there were any imperfections.

The next day, when Regina went to pick Emma up from school, the first thing the little girl told her was that her birdhouse had been the best in the class.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Something Regina thought she'd miss about the Enchanted Forest was servants; as queen, she'd had tons of them. Someone to cook for her, someone to make her bed, hell even someone to pick her nose if she pleased.

But here was something she'd never told anyone: she secretly hated having servants. Why did she need people to do everything for her? She was plenty self sufficient. In fact, Regina had hated how she'd had to sit back and let others do things for her. She enjoyed cooking and cleaning, damnit.

So now, here in Storybrooke mopping was her new stress reliever. The idea that all the little stains (which had increased tenfold after Emma's arrival) could be so easily erased by some hot water and soap was so oddly appealing. Saturday mornings were now her dedicated mopping days, giving her plenty of time to rejuvenate and just think about random things.

Yeah, she was weird.

Regina hummed a random song to herself as she continued her way down the entryway. Upstairs, she could hear Emma having a tea party with her stuffed animals. She'd wanted cookies with her apple juice (since there was no way Regina was allowing real tea) but Regina had given her animal crackers instead.

Ok, she was a bit of a health nut too.

What should she do today, especially since she had no paperwork to catch up on. Take Emma to the park? It looked a bit rainy, so maybe not. Shopping? But Regina already had three years worth of perfectly coordinated outfits all set out. When she'd first masterminded the curse, one of the things she'd thought to include was a big, beautiful wardrobe. If she couldn't wear her amazing Evil Queen outfits here, at the very least she should look better than everyone else.

And she did. Look at how Mary Margaret dressed, for one. Yet another way Regina had won.

Maybe she could take Emma out to lunch and then to the pet shelter to visit the puppy she'd wanted. Yes, that sounded like a good plan.

"Emma!" Regina called up the stairs. "Go and get dressed. We're going out."

"Where?"

"Granny's and maybe the pet shelter."

Emma really must've been into her tea party, because her response was "But I'm not done yet."

"Well, you can finish playing when we get back. Now go and get dressed. Warmly too, it's cold out."

"Ok. Can we get pie too?"

"Maybe, if you're good." Though Regina knew that "maybe" usually meant "yes".

"Really?"

"Yes, dear but only if you  _hurry._ "

A thump, a flurry of movement, and Emma flew down the stairs, a knit hat perched sideways atop her messy hair. "I'm ready!"

Regina looked up to see Emma, her sneakers in one hand, revealing two mismatched socks. Typical. No matter how hard Regina worked at perfectly folding Emma's laundry her socks always ended up scattered everywhere. "Wait, the floor might be a little-"

There was a gasp and then Emma was sliding across the freshly mopped floor, falling down and landing on her side.

"Emma! Are you alright?"

Emma slowly sat up, her face stunned.

"Are you hurt? Oh, I'm so sorry I should've told you the floor was wet."

Emma's lips quivered as she looked up at her. The tears soon followed. And then the small whimpers. Regina kneeled down beside her, trying to soothe the crying five year old. "You're alright."

Emma shook her head against her as she continued to cry.

"Here, show me where it hurts."

Emma whimpered softly as she lifted her right arm. Regina could already see the fast forming bruise near her elbow.

"Does it hurt anywhere else?"

She nodded and spoke softly "M-my chin."

Regina took a closer look, and saw a small cut on the side of her chin, surrounded by yet another purple bruise. "Ouch. Come on, let's get that cleaned up." Regina led Emma to the bathroom where she sat her atop the counter and reached into the medicine cabinet for the first aid kit. "What kinda band-aid would you like? Let me guess, Batman?"

At the prospect of her favorite, Emma smiled a little. "Can I have one for my arm too?"

"But it's not bleeding."

"I like Batman though."

"Of course." She ripped off the little piece of paper and placed it on Emma's arm. "There we go. All better."

Band-aids on, they headed out to Granny's; if she hadn't earlier, now Regina had every intention of allowing Emma to have pie.

* * *

"I bet I can go higher than you!"

"Nuh uh!" Emma challenged as she pumped her legs harder and harder, willing the swing to travel farther into the air.

The bell rang just then, signaling the end of recess. In the distance Emma could see Mrs. Smith standing outside, waiting for her kindergarteners to line up before her so that they could go back inside.

"Awww." Jasmine said as she slowly stepped down. "I don't wanna go in."

"Me neither."

They lined up behind the rest of their classmates and followed the line inside, where the kindergarteners stripped off their heavy winter layers and threw them into the cubbies.

"Time for art!" Mrs. Smith announced, and the room suddenly became a flurry of movement.

Jasmine went to go and get the box of art supplies that she and Emma shared; each kid was assigned a partner and a box (really a plastic container) of crayons, glue sticks, stickers, and more.

"I can't wait to finish my drawing." Emma rolled up her sleeves in preparation for the glitter glue she wanted to use to sprinkle over the Christmas tree on her paper. So far she'd drawn a picture of herself and Regina standing by the fireplace, and now it was time for the tree.

Mrs. Smith, who was walking to a table in the back of the room to stop the two boys who were fighting over the last glue stick, suddenly stopped at Emma's table. "Emma?"

"Hmm?" Emma said without looking up. Gold or silver? Gold was prettier but there wasn't too much left. Decisions, decisions.

Mrs. Smith placed a hand on Emma's arm. "How did you get this bruise?"

"I fell." Emma shrugged.

"You did? On the playground? Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Why was Mrs. Smith asking her this? All Emma wanted was to finish her tree so that she could take it home and surprise Regina. So far Regina had been putting all of her drawings up on the fridge and Emma wanted to display this one front and center. "No, at home. The floor was wet and I fell."

Mrs. Smith studied Emma's face. Why wasn't the little girl looking up? "Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

Upon careful inspection, there was a band-aid as well as a bruise on Emma's chin. "Did you hurt your chin at home too?"

"Yup."

"All right." Mrs. Smith said slowly. "Emma, you know that you need to tell a grown-up if something happens, all right?"

"I know."

As Mrs. Smith backed away, there was a niggling feeling in the pit of her stomach. Sure, Regina could be mean at times. Downright sarcastic and condescending too. But there was no doubt about the fact that she really cared about Emma; on parents' day last week Regina had canceled a very important city council meeting just to attend. Mrs. Smith knew of this because she, like every other Storybrooke citizen, received a flyer in the mail every month informing her of this. And the bird house Emma had brought in did look ten times better than anybody else's, evident of Regina's hard work (there was no way a five year old could've produced something as magnificent as that). Emma hadn't exhibited any signs, either. She was as cheerful as usual.

But there was the fact that nobody truly knew anything about the mayor. She was as mysterious and private as they came. And maybe Emma was  _used_ to hiding her emotions.

Maybe she was just feeling this way because of Emma's past. If any of the other kids had come in with a bruise or a cut she wouldn't even have batted an eye. It was only if this happened multiple times that she would've been concerned. For all she knew Emma really could've just fallen.

Just in case, though, she'd keep an eye on Emma. Just in case.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Feeding the ducks at the duck pond was one of Emma's favorite things to do. Besides visit the pet shelter, get hot chocolate at Granny's, and peruse the toy store, of course. There was just something so peaceful about bringing a loaf of bread (whole wheat-all of the bread at the Mills mansion was whole wheat and Regina insisted that even the ducks had to watch out for their health) and just watching the ducks go crazy.

Emma laughed hysterically as the ducks approached, driven into a frenzy by the single piece of bread she held in her hand. It was like they'd been expecting her. She thrust out her arm and threw it, though it didn't go too far, and the ducks immediately descended upon it.

"Give them smaller pieces, or else you'll run out too quickly." Regina called.

Emma did so as per her instructions, but the bread still did seem to go by way too fast. Soon enough, the bag was empty and she was running back to Regina.

"This is the last bag, alright?"

Emma stuck out her lower lip. "Really?"

"Yes, really. I'd love to give you more but this is all we have and we have to be going soon. Remember, I have a city council meeting at 3 and I need to take you to Granny's."

"Ok."

Half a loaf later, Regina was standing up from the bench where she'd been watching Emma and the ducks. "Time to go!"

"Five more minutes?"

"No, dear, I already gave you five more. We really need to go."

"But Regina the bag's not empty yet. The ducks are hungry." Emma said, her eyes all wide and innocent. Already she'd learned that the puppy dog look worked wonders on Regina.

Regina laughed lightly. "I doubt it, based on how much bread you gave them. We'll come back another day, alright?"

"Just five more minutes? Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

Regina sighed. She'd love to spend the entire day here but she'd already blown off the last three meetings and she really couldn't miss anymore. "Emma, I'm sorry. Now come on. I don't want to be late."

Emma stomped her foot defiantly. "No!"

On one hand Regina was glad that Emma was arguing, because it showed that she was comfortable enough to do so. But on the other hand Regina really didn't have the patience to deal with this. She raised an eyebrow. "Really? Are you sure about that? You know what happens if you misbehave." She started walking away, knowing full well that Emma would follow.

And follow she did. A second later she could hear Emma's footsteps, and then a hand was slipped into her own. "I'm sorry. Don't be mad." She said in a little voice.

"I'm not mad." Regina squeezed Emma's hand and smiled down at the little girl. "But when I say something I need you to listen, alright?"

"Okay. Can I still have dessert tonight?"

Regina pretended to think about it for a moment, tapping a finger on her chin. "Well...I suppose."

* * *

"Can we make chocolate chip  _and_ peanut butter?"

"I wouldn't have bought all these ingredients if I hadn't been planning to."

The normally immaculate kitchen counters were covered, or more like heaped, with mountains upon mountains of cookie baking ingredients. From flour to sugar to chocolate chips to mixing bowls, it seemed as though Regina had bought out the entire baked goods aisle of Storybrooke's supermarket.

Seeing this as a sneaky way to have Emma practice reading, Regina opened the cookbook to the correct page and set it on the counter. "Alright, Emma you're in charge."

"I am?"

"Yes. You're going to tell us how to make these cookies."

"But I don't know how."

"That's what the book's for." Regina pointed at the page with a perfectly manicured nail painted...dark red of course. "The recipe tells you how."

Emma seemed to deflate. "But there are big words."

"It's alright." Regina said soothingly. "You can sound it out slowly."

"Do I hafta?"

"Yes. Practice makes perfect, dear."

"But reading's hard."

"I'll help you. It'll be fine."

"Ok." Emma squinted at the first line. "It says we need to put three eggs in the bowl."

Regina nodded encouragingly as she went to retrieve the eggs. "What else?"

"Um," Emma paused. "two cups of...flour."

Regina, who knew this recipe by heart, was ready with an open bag. "Very good."

"Can I do it?"

Regina hesitated. "Are you sure? The bag's really heavy."

" _Yes._ " Emma huffed. "I'm not a baby."

"Of course you're not." Regina stood Emma up on the stool and dragged the measuring cup across the counter. "Alright, pour it to the little red line.  _Slowly._ "

Emma grasped the bag and tilted it downwards; the flour was just about to reach the cup when there was a knock on the door, followed by the tinkly ring of the doorbell.

"Wait here." Regina said. "Let me just go see really quickly who that is." She strode over to the door, where to her surprise, stood a young red haired woman.

"Who are you?"

"Mayor Mills." The woman began. She looked nervous and kind of sick. "My name is Anna Carter. From Social Services."

Right. She was the social worker who'd brought Emma to Storybrooke. "And what are you doing here?" Regina asked, a touch of irritation in her voice.

"I, um…" Anna began uncomfortably, scratching the side of her neck. "I'm here to collect Emma."

 


End file.
